BILLINGS — Students at Billings Senior High School returned to classes Thursday morning following a stabbing on Tuesday that forced a school cancellation and left the community shaken and searching for normalcy.
The school day began on schedule, but students said the atmosphere felt far from typical after police say a female student stabbed a teacher on the school's third floor.
MTN has now confirmed the teacher is math teacher Jason Rader.
Watch students talk about the first day back following the stabbing:
MTN interviewed multiple students outside the school after class ended for the day. They are not identified because they are underage.
"You can definitely tell the energy was off," one female student said Thursday.
Another described the feeling as "just kind of empty," while others spoke of "seeing everybody scared."
Many students reported feeling emotional and anxious about returning to school. The incident has created lasting concerns for some.
"It's definitely made school a lot more anxiety fearing for me, I feel like," one sophomore said.
The third floor, where the stabbing occurred, proved especially difficult for students with classes in that area. Rader's classroom sat empty Thursday, with his math classes relocated elsewhere in the building and taught by substitute teachers.
"A lot of students are missing Mr. Rader right now," the female student said.
The school brought in more than a dozen counselors to help students process the traumatic event. Nikki Salazar was among the mental health professionals who set up in the school library to provide support.
"We're just there to be present. So if a student did have hard feelings that they wanted to process, then they can talk with us," Salazar said. "There's a lot of kiddos that went to the library. That's where kind of our home base was."
Some students took advantage of the counseling services available.
"I'm feeling okay. I actually talked to one of the therapists, so that helped a lot," the female student said.
Many found it challenging to concentrate on academics. The sophomore was among those struggling to focus.
"School doesn't really feel the same, and I think it was really abrupt that we had to kind of go back and act normal like nothing happened," the student said.
The timing added another layer of stress, as students are currently in the middle of finals week. The missed day of classes Tuesday left some feeling unprepared.
"I kind of didn't feel prepared for finals because we didn't get yesterday with our teachers to study," a third student, also a sophomore, said.
Support extended beyond the school building. Members of a local church set up a table across the street to offer encouragement to students.
"We wanna be the hands and feet of empowering them and helping them get to a healthy place so that they don't have to fear and that they could just feel good if I'm going back through the doors," Leslie Hutchins, a community member said.
Related:
'They're concerned': Billings Senior preparing for nervous students and staff after stabbing
