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Community Support and Resilience: Kindergartners ‘Critical but Stable’ After California School Shooting

In Citizen
January 18, 2025

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Two young children in kindergarten are in stable condition after being shot at their school in Northern California. They were quickly taken to hospitals for treatment. The shooter, who has a criminal record and mental health issues, was responsible for the incident.

Written by Soumya Karlamangla and Orlando Mayorquín

Soumya Karlamangla wrote from San Francisco, while Orlando Mayorquín reported from Oroville, California.

Two young students at Feather River Adventist School were walking to the bathroom during lunchtime on Wednesday. It was a routine trip they were taking before returning to their classroom.

Instead, not long after that, they were shot and severely injured by someone with a gun.

Two young boys named Roman Mendez, aged 6, and Elias Wolford, aged 5, were quickly taken from their school near Oroville, California. One was transported by ambulance and the other by helicopter to hospitals urgently.

Vanessa Diaz expressed her distress over the situation, stating that it is devastating to see her brother Roman in the ICU in an unconscious state. She described the experience as heartbreaking.

The Butte County Sheriff’s Office announced on Thursday that the boys’ condition had improved to "critical but stable," bringing a sense of hope to the rural community located about 60 miles north of Sacramento. Despite facing various hardships in recent years, residents have come together to organize fundraisers, vigils, and financial support for the victims and their families, similar to how they have supported each other in the past in this agricultural region.

In the past, the people living in this area experienced the devastating Camp fire, which resulted in the loss of 85 lives and the destruction of the town of Paradise located around 20 miles away. Additionally, a year before this fire, the residents of Oroville had to quickly leave their homes in fear of the Oroville Dam potentially collapsing.

During the shooting on Wednesday, authorities suspect that the shooter, Glenn Litton, 56, specifically chose to target the parochial school because it had ties to the Seventh-day Adventists, a type of Protestant Christian group. Litton later took his own life.

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