November 15th, 2019 at 10:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka * * *
Editor’s Note: We at ThinkBlueLA.com make every effort to avoid “I / Me” opinion pieces. Obviously, there are times when this simply is not possible. This is one of those times.
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It was right around this same time of year – late November – 2002. I was still on the job as a robbery/homicide detective for the Burbank Police Department in Southern California which, as you might have guessed, often interfered with my personal family life. But it (thankfully) did not on this cool November night.
Instead, I was on the sidelines of the College of the Canyons football field, where the Saugus High School Homecoming football game against William S. Hart High School was about to be played.
…and then I was on the field.
No, not as an athlete or a coach, but as the proudest father on the planet at that moment in time. Just prior to the opening kickoff and by a vote of her peers, my then 17-year-old daughter Christina was crowned Saugus High School’s 2002-2003 Homecoming Queen.
I, a big rough tough cop, openly wept with the pride and joy that only a parent would understand. It was a moment in time that I shall never forget. Not ever.
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November 14, 2019, 17 years later almost to the day. I had long since retired from my real job and enjoying my now 11-year passion job as the administrator and senior writer of ThinkBlue LA, a fan-based Dodgers website that also covers the team’s minor league affiliates. I am so very blessed to have a staff of equally passionate Dodgers (and baseball) fans, and an IT expert helping me.
With the heartbreaking 2019 baseball season now over, the need to get up at zero dark thirty to write re-cap articles from the night before was no longer necessary and I get to sleep in, at least until pitchers and catchers report for spring training in February.
…or so I thought.
Shortly before 8 a.m., I was awakened by the sound of several helicopters hovering nearby. VERY nearby. In fact, it sounded as though they were directly above my Saugus, CA home.
“This can’t be good,” I said to myself.
I got up, threw on some running shorts and a T-shirt and went outside to see what all the racket was about. From my front yard, I indeed saw several news helicopters hovering at altitude. I didn’t see any (all-too-familiar) smoke in the area, so it didn’t appear to be another brush fire that has plagued the area (and all of California) of late.
“Uh oh, there must be something else big going on nearby,” I said out loud to myself.
I returned to my bedroom to the sound of my cellphone buzzing. A quick peek revealed a text message from a very dear friend … who lives in Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada. The message said, “I hope you guys are ok.”
“Uh oh, there is something VERY big going on nearby,” I said to myself, this time even louder.
I quickly went to the absolute fasted source for information – Twitter – and read in absolute shock and horror what had just happened at Saugus High School – my daughter’s alma mater – a very short 1.4 miles away.
I, a big rough tough (now retired) cop, openly wept, this time with absolute sorrow (and a lot of anger) that only a parent would understand. It was a moment in time that I shall never forget. Not ever.
Like most Santa Clarita residents – and the entire nation (and Canada), for that matter – I spent the next several hours following the horrific up-to-the-second news of the Saugus High School shooting on television and on Twitter.
Around 3 p.m., I decided to take a break from the unbearably sad news coverage and went to my nearby In-N-Out Burger, despite the fact that I really wasn’t hungry. When I walked into the normally joyous restaurant, I immediately noticed two things:
- The normally crowded restaurant was almost empty with what should have been a large crowd of high school students … Saugus High School students.
- The few patrons that were in the restaurant – and the normally very cheerful employees – were noticeably very somber.
It was more that I could handle. I turned around and returned to my car.
…and I wept in a way that only a parent would understand.
(Photo credit – David Walter Banks)
On behalf of the entire staff at ThinkBlue LA, I send our very deepest sympathies, thoughts and prayers to those affected by this horrible tragedy.
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Posted in 
Thank you for sharing, Ron. I found out about the shooting while at work. Then I had to drop my siste… https://t.co/UZEjwoNllg
Ron
That was a great article, written from the heart of a father. There have been so many shootings, I can’t keep up. As a proud father myself, it shakes my soul seeing kids shot. I am so glad my girls are out of public school, now I worry about them at our local community college.
I only pray that this is the last one….
I couldn’t imagine being a parent who gets that terrible call
Really sorry to read such bad news, thanks for sharing, Ron.
There can’t be anything worse than losing a child! This has to be a parent’s worst nightmare.
It’s time to REALLY do something to stop this insanity and I don’t mean gun registration/control for law abiding people.
I grew up in the the San Fernando Valley, over the hill from Saugus. Dad was a FBI Agent, so there was always guns in the house. We kids all knew where they were in his room. All we ever had to do was ask and we were welcome to see and handle them properly when he was there. We were all told NEVER to touch them when Dad wasn’t there. Being normal kids we all got into our fair share of mischief, but none of us ever touched Dad’s guns when he wasn’t there.
By age 14, two friends and I got into hunting, spending many weekends in the hills above Acton, CA hunting, quail, rabbits, snakes and just about anything else that moved. Amazingly, our parents would drop us off on Friday night and pick us up on Sunday. I’m amazed now that my responsible parents would have done this back then. During the week, my friends and I all had our shotguns, 22 rifles and pistols in our bedroom closets, of course we all had the bullets in our rooms also.
Later, when we could drive, we’d sometimes pack a car for the weekend Thursday night and have the guns and ammunition in the car at high school on Friday. I don’t remember ever feeling the need to show off our guns to schoolmates, but we might of. We knew guns were something that demanded respect and responsibility.
Something has changed in America over the last fifty years. I read the shooter’s 16th birthday was the day of the shooting.
I remember my 16th birthday, ALL I thought about was getting my driver’s license. My Dad took a rare day off to take me to DMV to get it. A great day.
What could have possessed this kid to do this to fellow students on his birthday? And what can we do about it?
I think we have to start looking at the schools and the curriculum and policies that our kids are being subjected to there.
Instead of stressing hard work and self responsibility, kids are taught victim-hood, being a victim is now something to strive for and truly about the only way to one-up your peers. Anybody who excels through hard work is minimized with 1st Place Trophies for all. Everybody/everything is equally good/normal, except, anybody who disagrees is evil. Really sick shit if you think about it!
Everyone/everything is equally good unless you don’t agree and then you must be “dealt with”. Tolerance for me, but not for thee seems to be the name of the game at our increasingly more violent schools and colleges today.
I don’t know what motivated this kid to commit this heinous act, but I do know, we should be teaching the things in schools that worked for generations.