Finding faith in trauma: Oxford student sees God’s promise shine through darkness

At 12:50 p.m., Nov. 30, 2021, LeeAnn Johnson was walking to her biochemistry class at Oxford High School. It was a normal school day, except Johnson, who was always early for her classes, was running late.
The oldest of five children, Johnson is an impossibly responsible and mature 17-year-old. A senior captain of the Wildcats’ varsity lacrosse team, she also runs cross-country, manages the school’s wrestling team and serves in student leadership. She’s active in her faith, regularly participating in the J-Walkers youth group at her parish, St. Joseph in Lake Orion, where group leader Kathy Galbraith says Johnson is the type of person one can always rely on — so much so, in fact, it’s often easy to forget she’s just a teenager.
Running late was out of character.
But as Johnson walked toward her class that day, however, something else wasn’t right: students were running across the hall she was approaching.
It’s just high school, Johnson figured at first. It was probably a senior prank, another group of kids running late, a fight, maybe. But then, she heard a bang. And then another. It soon became clear the sound wasn’t someone being slammed against a locker.
Like most of her post-Columbine Generation Z peers, Johnson has participated in ALICE active-shooter and lockdowns drills at school since she was little, and suddenly she put together what the sound was and why the students were running.
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