Bailey Elementary teachers fought back tears and emotions Monday as they remembered sisters Aurorah, 7, and Ava Payne, 6, who were found shot to death Friday in their Lake Station mobile home.
Their mother, Briana Payne, 27, younger sister, Alayna, 4, were also shot and killed. Their father, Robert Payne, 31, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the Lake County coroner’s office.
Grief counselors and a pair of golden retriever comfort dogs offered support for students as they struggled to understand why Ava and Aurorah were gone.
“You don’t get that class in college on how to deal with this,” said kindergarten teacher Stephanie Yorek, who’s taught both sisters in the past two years.
Ava’s first grade teacher Angela Kreuger said her students were quiet and somber, very uncharacteristic for them.
Ava’s best friend came into the classroom sobbing. Two other students volunteered to say a prayer for Ava.
“This is their first experience with the death of someone their own age,” said first grade teacher Lisa Richardson, who taught Aurorah last year. “The innocence that’s lost in all of this. So much taken from this one incident…”
The girls and their mom took part in school events and easily made friends in their mobile home park.
Briana Payne brought her three daughters to the school’s Valentine’s Day dance on Feb. 10 and danced with them. She stayed after the dance to help clean up as a member of the PTO.
“They always donated, Aurorah had a backpack full of canned food,” said Richardson.
“Her kids were her main priority,” said Yorek, who said Briana Payne worked part-time jobs for food delivery services, but took time to drive her children to school each day.
Aurorah’s second grade teacher Linda Scartozzi said kids cried in her classroom because they missed their classmate. “It was just awful,” she said.
Briana Payne helped her decorate her classroom at Christmas, Scartozzi said. “She was a good mom. Their dad was not much of a participant.”
Scartozzi said Aurorah had given her some items to raffle off and she honored that request with her students Monday as they placed the items on her vacant desk along with notes and stuffed animals.
Scartozzi played the Kidz Bop version of “Savage Love,” Aurorah’s favorite song, at the end of the day.
Teachers described Ava and Aurorah as total opposites in personalities.
Aurorah loved music and dance, said Richardson.
“She just loved life, that girl had energy. She lived her days. She lived and soaked up every minute. She was a happy, energetic little girl.”
Yorek recalled the differences in each sister.
“Ava — when she loved you, she loved you hard. Ava was a harder book to open, but once you opened it….
“Aurorah was a social butterfly, Ava was more reserved and laid back,” said Yorek.
“She was like the narrator of her own life,” said Yorek of the more talkative Aurorah.
Kreuger said Ava was friendly but reserved. She remembered Ava’s face lighting up when she showed a pet snail to her class.
“Ava was a sweetheart. She was kind to everybody,” said Kreuger.
Both girls loved animals and had a cat they shared. They also brought their two guinea pigs, and two rabbits to school for show and tell day.
Physical education teacher Kelly Schmeltzer said Aurorah had the stronger personality.
“In the car line, their mom was always in the first six or seven cars and Aurorah flew out the door and Ava plodded along … that was the routine.”
Schmeltzer said Ava was carefree, but quiet and seemed undisturbed the day she came to gym class wearing two left shoes.
“I know,” Ava told her.
Meanwhile, Lake Station Mayor Bill Carroll said grief counselors met with first responders at city hall.
“We’re waiting for the family to reach out to us, if they want a memorial,” he said.
“Right now, this is all about the family and our first responders. Those poor kids and the kids at school. How do you sit down with your young one and explain they won’t be in school ever again?”
Carroll said it’s time to take mental health issues seriously.
“We need to change the stigma of mental health… people hide their mental illness because they don’t want to be stigmatized,” he said.
The tragedy garnered national attention over the weekend when the story unfolded after all five family members were found by police shot to death in their mobile home in the 6700 block of 9th Avenue in the Mansard du Lac park.
“Our hearts are with all of the loved ones, and the Lake Station community, who are now processing this senseless and devastating shooting,” said Nicole Hockley, co-founder and CEO of the Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit foundation created following a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.
Hockley’s son Dylan was shot to death with 19 other classmates and six staff members.
“To know that children so young were ripped away by gun violence in an environment where they should have been safe and protected is horrifying. Kids deserve the right to be kids, and to be safe. But too often the nightmare of gun violence destroys this fundamental and precious right. We must all join in advocating for change,” she said in a statement.
The group supports responsible gun ownership and educates people in understanding the warning signs of someone who may be in a mental health crisis.
It cited statistics that listed firearms as the leading cause of death among Indiana children and teens.
Stanford University researchers said the majority of U.S. children who die in mass shootings were killed by a family member.
The Sandy Hook Foundation also singled out Indiana for recent legislation that temporarily removes weapons from someone if they’ve been deemed a threat to themselves or others.
“When everyone is taught to recognize the warning signs and seek help, steps like temporary transfers are great opportunities to save lives, get people the help they need, and preserve our constitutional rights,” the Sandy Hook release said.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
