This is my last column before we face the five-year anniversary of the Saugus High School shooting in November. For parents, school shootings are our worst nightmare. Tragically, it was a reality for thousands of parents, students, educators, and law enforcement right here in our own community. Everyone was either personally impacted that day, or knows someone who was.

For me, the Tretta family are the people I know most impacted that day. Mia was one of the students shot at Saugus High School. Her best friend died after being shot. I will never forget the photo of Mia at her graduation, next to an empty chair where her best friend should have been, decorated to honor him. I think of this image every time I hear of yet another school shooting, and anytime my own daughter has a lockdown at her school.

Last week, when I had to race over to pick up my daughter because there were threats of a school shooting at her school, she was filled with terror when I got to her, telling me her biggest fear is being killed in a school shooting.

That call and the fear in her face was horrifying, and even though the threats were investigated without a shooting ever happening, those moments never leave you or your child.

When a school shooting happens in Santa Clarita, the fourth safest city in the United States, we know school shootings can happen anywhere, in any community, until our political leaders have the courage enough to act.

Mia and her mom, Tiffany, have taken action and dedicated themselves to........

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