‘EVERYONE SHOULD BE SCARED’ : ‘I Thought I Was Dead’

O n Sept. 7, the first day of classes at Dorsey High School, sophomore Glenn Browne, 15, was shot in the chest.

Browne, a bystander, was registering for classes when a fistfight broke out among other students in a hallway and a gun was fired.

He was rushed to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where he spent 12 days, several of them in critical condition.

Before leaving the hospital for his Los Angeles home Sept. 18, Browne spoke to View Staff Writer Michael Quintanilla about his ordeal and his fear about returning to school:

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I’m not ready to go back to school. I’m scared.

I couldn’t go to sleep the night before (the shooting) because I was so anxious to go to school. Make new friends. Meet new people. This would have been my first year in high school.

The next day I got up, got ready, went to my friend’s house, stayed there for a few minutes until my other friend came. Then we went to get something to eat because we didn’t have to register at school until 10:30.

Inside the school, I was standing in line in a long hallway so I could register for my classes. I was standing against the wall talking to some friends.

I saw these four boys fighting with another boy. It was a fistfight. I was walking to get a look and then the boy thought I was gonna jump in.

I heard something. A shot. But I didn’t know that it was me until I looked at my hand and it was bleeding. I started to burn right here, in the chest. I felt a pain. I felt a heavy burn, a strong burn.

I remember this lady, some nurse at the school. I was holding her and talking to her and then the ambulance came. They put me on a board. I remember I looked outside and I saw a lot of kids and I went to sleep in the ambulance truck.

I thought I was dead.

I wanted to go to Dorsey so I could play football. I also play baseball, third base.

I never had any fear of going to school in elementary or middle school. I don’t have any friends who have been shot. I’ve never been in a gang. I’ve chosen not to be in a gang. If you’re in a gang you won’t care about your life. And then you’ll be killed. You gotta watch your back a lot if you’re in a gang because you don’t know who could come by and do it: hit you or shoot you.

I just want to tell kids to be careful, careful of gangs in schools and (to) stay away from them. Because they’ll probably get shot. Just like I did, for no reason.

I probably won’t go back to that school (Dorsey). I’ll go to a different one. I don’t know which one. I don’t know when.

I’m afraid of school violence at Dorsey. I won’t feel afraid at the next school. I’m gonna try to watch out for myself at the next school. I’m not gonna be with bad people. I’m gonna be by myself.

What worries me the most? Guns. They kill people. There should be metal detectors and a lot of police at schools. I see things getting worse. I want to put this behind me.

In the hospital I haven’t been thinking about getting shot, I’ve just been thinking about when am I gonna get home, what I’m gonna do.

I want to stay in the house. I don’t wanna go outside. I wanna be with my dad, my grandma, my aunt, my brothers and sisters, everybody.

I’m gonna tell them to stay away from the bad people like gangs and people who wanna be in gangs. I’m gonna tell them to stay to themselves at school.

School should be a place to learn. It’s a place where you can study hard and be somebody in your life, a place for you to get a good education. Not a place where you can get killed.