CFHS principal said she was anxious for Monday’s start

Carolina Forest principal Velna Allen said she was anxious about the students returning to school Monday after Friday’s shooting and stabbing incident.

The Friday morning incident left Trevor Varinecz, 16 dead and sent school resource office Marcus Rhodes to the hospital with stab wounds.

According to a Horry County police report released Monday to News13, Rhodes shot Varinecz several time in self defense after Varinecz stabbed him with a knife.  The report also stated that Varinecz had two knives.

Allen said although she was anxious on Monday, the day was what she expected and she said knew students would rise to the occasion and day went very well.

Allen also said parents have been very supportive after Friday’s incident.  “We had several parent volunteers who came out, they had brought water, they brought snacks for our visiting counselors and they sent plants to the school, we’ve received a lot of emails so today has been very supportive from the parents.“

Allen said the main thing for the counselors who were on hand Monday was to let students talk about what happened so they can express how they feel and how to deal with their own grief and talk with parents.  “We’ve tried to let the students know even if it’s a month from now, you know six months from now, and we’re here if they want to talk to us.“

Tuesday, Allen said the school will cut back on some of the counseling staff, based on what they saw Monday and they will still have additional police officers Tuesday, but not as many as on Monday.

Allen also said students are struggling to understand what caused Friday’s incident and some have asked her what the could school have done to prevent it from happening and Allen said adults are struggling with that as well.  “The students who know the young man, they know he was a nice polite young man a good student and then we also know Officer Rhodes and we know that he’s well respected in this community and at this school and so we’re struggling to understand what happened and we don’t have those answers.“

Allen said she and the rest of the faculty are working to keep the focus on a good quality education and moving forward, Allen said the students want a return to normalcy.  “They’re proud of their school, some of the students I’ll be honest with you, they were a little upset and defensive because of some of the things out there in the media, you know they wanted to share their story that this is a great school, it’s where they want to be and the fact that they came today tells me that they feel comfortable here.“