Calling for a conversation Viewpoints, B7
SUNDAY, 12.07.2014
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EVERETT, WASHINGTON
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WWW.HERALDNET.COM
MARYSVILLE PILCHUCK
“Sometimes your face can’t express what your hands express.” Carly McCartney, Marysville Pilchuck High School art student
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$1.50 (HIGHER IN OUTLYING AREAS)
Evidence refutes chopper claims Radio traffic and public records don’t support the contention that helicopters were available to take victims of the MPHS shooting to Harborview, and also cast doubt on Airlift Northwest’s version of events. By Scott North and Rikki King Herald Writers
HEALING ART Students create works for recovery fund, but process helps them cope with trauma as well By Chris Winters Herald Writer
MARYSVILLE — Carly McCartney remembers the days after the shootings at Marysville Pilchuck High School as filled with emotion. McCartney, 17, a senior at the school, readily admits that verbal communication isn’t her strong suit. Her medium is drawing and painting. So when she heard about an opportunity to use art to help raise money for the victims’ families, she plunged in. Four students died at the hand of shooter Jaylen Fryberg, 15, who also killed himself: Zoe Galasso, Shaylee Chuckulnaskit and Gia Soriano, all 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15. Nate Hatch, 14, shot in the jaw, is the only victim to survive. The fundraiser, dubbed “Healing Hearts,” is run by a youth apparel company in Marysville called Curacy, which first got some buzz in 2013 when its initial line, called The Please Line, got noticed during Milan Fashion Week. Mel McGhee, Curacy’s CEO, decided that her new business — custom-printed T-shirts — would be ideal for artistic students as part of their recovery from the trauma. “We had several people call us and ask us to do a fundraiser with clip art and such,” McGhee said.
Classified . . . E2 Crossword . . . D4
Dear Abby . . . D5 Good Life . . . . D1
But that was probably more suited to a standard screen printer rather than Curacy’s business, which makes apparel to order and uses straight-to-garment printing, a longer and more involved process. McGhee asked an art teacher she knew to get the word out to students. “We contacted her and asked, ‘Do you think kids would find healing this way?’” she said. McCartney heard about it in an email from Karen Epperson, her advanced-placement art teacher at Marysville Pilchuck. She spent the week after the shooting, while the school was closed, putting together “Our Choice,” a mixed-media artwork incorporating stencils, pencil, marker, colored pencil, paint and cutout figures filled in with gel pens. “After the event, I suppose I felt the need to get some energy out, and in support of Marysville Pilchuck,” McCartney said. “Part of it is a purge, and part of it is in support of the fundraiser.” “Our Choice” features a large pair of hands, surrounded by human figures against a background that evokes a stainedglass window. The hands are a recurring motif in McCartney’s other work. “Sometimes your face can’t express what your hands express. If you’re gripping
Horoscope . . . D4 Lottery . . . . . . A2
See HEALING, Page A8
Moneywise . . E1 Movies . . . . . . D5
Obituaries . B4-6 Viewpoints . . B7
See CHOPPER, Page A8
REMEMBERING PEARL
PREP FOOTBALL BEST
Caretaker shares story of a Boy Scout who went to war. Muhlstein, B1
Coach Carson leads Herald’s All-Area Team.
Nebulous 51/43, C10
Sports, C1
VOL. 111, NO. 300 © 2014 THE DAILY HERALD CO.
SUNDAY
DAN BATES / THE HERALD
Senior advanced-placement art student Carly McCartney turned to art to help heal after the MPHS shooting. Now her work, such as “Our Choice” (pictured), may be used to raise funds for the victims’ families.
MARYSVILLE — It was a story that grew wings and has persisted despite mounting evidence the conclusions were wrong. Within days of the Oct. 24 shootings at Marysville Pilchuck High School, people in Seattle began questioning whether everything possible was done to save the victims’ lives. In particular, they wondered why paramedics took the grievously wounded students by ambulance to Everett’s Providence Regional Medical Center instead of loading them onto helicopters for a flight to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, the region’s top-ranked trauma hospital. In reality, the two helicopters sent to help that morning weren’t close enough to make a difference, and firefighters weren’t even told about a third medical chopper that reportedly was in the area. Airlift Northwest released a timeline three days after the shootings describing how a helicopter carrying trained trauma nurses was hovering over the high school when it was waved off by Marysville firefighters. But interviews, emergency radio traffic recordings from that day, emergency dispatch logs and other public records cast doubt on that version of events. When paramedics in Marysville began transporting patients to Everett they were told by dispatchers that Airlift Northwest helicopters, sent from Seattle and Bellingham, were still roughly 20 minutes away. Moments before the helicopters were canceled, Airlift Northwest told emergency dispatchers those helicopters still were 14 minutes away from the high school, records show. Airlift Northwest now acknowledges the only helicopter it had near the school as the emergency unfolded wasn’t even responding to the shootings. Instead, it was flying back to base in Arlington after completing an unrelated call. “They were flying their normal route and from their vantage point saw the activity on the ground. They were not part of the Airlift Northwest deployment to the scene, but
were definitely over the area,” said Susan Gregg, a spokeswoman for both Harborview and Airlift Northwest. Both are components of the medical program run by the University of Washington. The helicopter that was reported to be over the high school — a different aircraft than Airlift Northwest listed in its original timeline — wasn’t in contact with ground crews. Indeed, firefighters didn’t learn of its presence until days later. In addition, Airlift Northwest did not have access to radio channels that would have allowed direct communication with local firefighters, records show. Similar problems arose in the hours after the March 22 mudslide in Oso, which killed 43 people. The school shootings added urgency to a conversation about improving radio connections between medical helicopters and Snohomish County police and firefighters. The discussions were already taking place. Greg Corn, chief of the Marysville Fire District, was at the high school the morning of the shootings. He thought the helicopters circling overhead were all television media. Marysville paramedics focused on trying to save lives that morning, he said. They followed their training and protocols, which included describing the nature of the patients’ injuries to emergency doctors at Providence. The doctors told them to bring all of the victims to Providence, as quickly as possible, Corn said. “Even if we would have known that helicopter was there, we still would have gone to Providence,” he said. “That was where we were directed.” A large medical team was waiting at the Everett hospital. It included two heart surgeons, two neurosurgeons, a chest surgeon, a vascular surgeon and 12 emergency room physicians. Dispatch logs show that each of the four ambulance rides from Marysville to Everett, a roughly 11-mile trip, took 12 minutes or less. The logs and other documents were obtained by The Daily Herald under the state public records law. Shooter Jaylen Fryberg, 15, and victim Zoe Galasso, 14, died at the scene. Shaylee
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