‘Pretty traumatic’ — Orem ninth grade student reacts to death of classmate

OREM, Utah (ABC4) — After a Canyon View Junior High School student died from what police believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound on a field trip earlier today, staff and students are dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic incident.

Ian Campbell, a 9th grader at the school, spoke to ABC4 about what happened. The students had a field trip to Vivian Park today, where they were going to have a day of activities, food, and sports.

“We’d basically get to skip like the entire day except for first period and half of second, and then we would basically just get to go have a day out, enjoy it without school or anything,” Ian explained.

Ian said it was pretty fun. He played soccer, and they had hot dogs from a local restaurant for lunch. After food they were able to do whatever, they wanted, so went to play spike ball with his friends, and it was getting close to when the buses were going to take them back to school.

“I remember I was playing spike ball with my friend, and then I just heard a loud pop. I didn’t think much of it, but eventually, I saw that a lot of people were running, and I saw that a lot of teachers rushed over. No one really knew what was happening,” Ian said.

Alpine School District is offering counseling resources at Canyon View Junior High School for any students who witnessed the incident.

Canyon Junior High School (Courtesy: Nicholas Rewey//KTVX)

“It was pretty traumatic to hear what happened, and some students– I know a lot of them were crying,” Ian said. “What happened was pretty scary.”

The incident is being investigated by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, and Alpine School District said it is working with law enforcement, medical personnel, and counseling experts to determine how best to move forward following this tragedy.