ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- The day after the shooting death of a mother and her two school-age children, grief and confusion reverberated through the schools the children attended.
Those affected went beyond immediate relatives and friends as teachers and students at Asheville High wept Thursday and tried to come to grips with the Wednesday night shooting that killed four people, including Keithan Whitmire, 15, who attended Asheville High, and Harmony Smith, an Asheville Middle Student.
Among the dead was the assailant, police said. Three other children in the family were wounded.
School offers counseling
"As I was walking in this morning, the teacher was crying, so I was wondering what was going on," said senior Bethany Nowland, 18.
Nowland's sister is in eighth grade at Asheville Middle, the same school Harmony Smith attended.
"My sister sent me over a text," Nowland said. "She said this is what happened to this girl today."
Nowland said it wasn't uncommon to see students crying throughout the day. Teachers made special efforts to pull students aside and invite them to talk, she said, and counselors were made available.
One student very directly affected was Seth Bellamy, Keithan Whitmire's cousin.
Bellamy was on the sidewalk next to the school after classes let out, when he stopped to talk about Whitmire. He said he was very close to his cousin and spent a lot of time with him.
"He was artistic, caring, humorous. He was kind of a go-with-the-flow type of person," he said. "He really cared about his family. Family mattered a lot to him."
Bellamy said he took comfort with the belief that Whitmire was "in a better place."
"And knowing the person who he was that he wouldn't want me to be sad for too long. He would want me to be happy in the end."
Hearing the news
Jake Goff, 14, said his mother told him about the shooting after he woke up. "And we heard about it throughout the day," he said.
Goff said his second-period teacher asked if it would help to stick to the normal routine or to "just go easy."
"We chose to just go easy. That was very helpful, just to have control over how we wanted to cope with it."
Yssabell Gernandt, 14, didn't know Whitmire but felt the sadness that permeated much of the school. Some students were affected more than others, she said.
Isabelle Theodossiou, 17, also didn't know the victim, but said she was shocked. The news got worse as students got their first information in the morning, then the number of confirmed fatalities climbed.
"It affected me. I didn't know them. But they were kids my age," said Theodossiou. "It's tragic. How can you not be affected by that?"