Four Saugus High shooting survivors surprised the teacher that protected them during the tragedy with gifts of thanks on Tuesday.

Tere La Giusa, a Spanish-language teacher at Saugus High School, had no idea of how dire events would become on the morning of Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019.

Seven students ran to La Giusa’s classroom for shelter, including 9th grader Mia Tretta, who had been shot once in the lower abdomen. Once inside, La Giusa and the other students scrambled to provide first aid to Tretta.

On Tuesday, four of those students — Tretta, Matthew Harrison, Kaylee Allen and Nicole, who declined to give her last name — returned to surprise La Giusa with flowers and gift cards in thanks for her actions during the tragic events of last November.

Nicole, Mia Tretta, Matthew Harrison, and Kaylee Allen. Photo by Jade Aubuchon/KHTS News

“Ms. La Giusa has been such a great hero and a great influence in her life, as a teacher from before all this happening, and then… no one really knows what a hero she was in that room and how she kept everybody calm,” said Tiffany Tretta, Mia’s mother.

According to Tretta, La Giusa was her daughter’s favorite teacher since her first day at Saugus High, a fact she attributes to her daughter’s decision to run all the way from the quad and up a flight of stairs to get to La Giusa’s classroom in the M building on campus, over 500 feet away from the site of the shooting.

“Somebody needs to recognize that teaching is a hard job in itself, and then you throw in these kind of things into the mix, and for her to have known exactly what to do under pressure… From my understanding, she told the police officers, ‘I’m not leaving until Mia is out of this room,’ so she is like family for us, forever now.”

Three other students, identified only as Ryan, Maria and Brody, were unable to attend the reunion. Tretta credited Ryan and Maria with dragging her inside the classroom, while La Guisa stated that Brody was the whole reason she even knew to usher students inside.

“It was all Brody… He was the one who told me that he had heard shots. It was because of him that I ran to the door and opened it and I could still hear the clattering of feet so I knew somebody was out there,” La Giusa said.

She tapped on her desk to illustrate footfalls as she talked, adding she was glad that the students saw the door open.

“When it happened, I knew I needed to get to a place where there was a friendly smile and someone I knew, and I knew I would be safe here,” said Mia Tretta. “She was so calm, coming in here I wasn’t scared anymore, I was zen. She stayed calm the entire time, even when the police officers were here, she was like, ‘No, I’m not leaving yet.’”

Fellow student Nicole had a slightly different experience, as she had never had La Giusa for a teacher or ever stepped foot into her classroom until that fateful day.

“When I came in here, I didn’t really know her,” said Nicole. “I was like, okay, this is a nice classroom. She was really chill, calm. She did what she had to do, and she got it done.”

For 11th graders Allen and Harrison, their discovery of La Giusa’s classroom came as a great relief, as the two had otherwise been planning to run off campus completely, as suggested by previous active shooter drills.

“La Giusa, she opened the door and was ready to have kids running in,” Allen said. “I felt like that was great, because even though a gate at campus wasn’t that far, we didn’t really know what was going on still. I was really happy not only to be with a teacher that I already knew, but to be in a classroom.”

Harrison, who hopes to become a firefighter in the future, echoed his friend’s statement.

“We were going to run off campus, but we felt we would be safer in here,” he said.

Joining the four students in their gratitude was fellow survivor Addison Koegle, as well as La Giusa’s family.

La Giusa shared that her affection for her students has always made her feel like another mother for them, a feeling that only intensified when her own children, now graduated, began attending Saugus High.

“Just being able to take care of my students as I would take care of my own kids, that’s exactly how I run my life. It seems even more magnified now,” La Giusa said.

La Giusa did not hear the shots herself, as her classroom was some distance away from the site of the shooting.

“I didn’t feel like I was making a whole bunch of choices, but it was just like… ‘Oh, they came in here and there was a shooting, let’s just do what we’re supposed to do… It was just a team effort. We all just acted like we knew each other and we knew the safest thing to do. I was so glad that they had aired the practice drill on SNN,” La Giusa said, referencing the school newscast. “We were just all taking care of each other, but if it wasn’t for Brody and the way he came in and told me, I wouldn’t have opened my door. (The students) would have ended up off-campus or in another classroom… but you know you can come here now.”

La Giusa revealed that despite previous reports, the school’s “Stop the Bleed” kits were not used during lifesaving efforts for Tretta, as La Giusa had not been on the staff at the time they were introduced, and had instead pulled out her own personal classroom first aid kit.

Addison Koegle shared her own experience in another area of campus, stating that her teacher and fellow students had also resorted to first aid kits, forgetting in the panic of the moment of the Stop the Bleed kit’s existence.

“Get training and be sure that they have those helps in place,” said La Giusa.

For Jered and Kassandra La Giusa-Riedman, the day of the Saugus High shooting was harrowing in quite another way, as both of their parents — La Guisa and her wife, Jacki Riedman —  work as teachers on campus. Both being college students, neither live in Santa Clarita during the school year.

Kassandra was awoken by a text from one of her mothers, and immediately grabbed her laptop in an attempt to get up-to-date on the situation and inform extended family members.

“I was trying to get ahold of my mom, but I knew that I might not be able to hear from you again, and then I tried to get ahold of you, mom,” said Kassandra, speaking to both of her mothers in turn. “And my heart was just racing, and when I saw the clips of (Mia) being brought out of my mom’s room, I was sent into a panic of wanting to know what was going on but glad to know that I had heard from you, that you guys were safe…”

Jered, a student at a northern California university, had been awoken by friends in Santa Clarita calling him. Watching the news, he felt as though he had gone into a state of shock.

“It was scary. You obviously never want to wake up to something like that… I didn’t believe them at first,” said Jered. “Then instantly I was calling both my parents. They didn’t pick up, which, you know makes sense in hindsight, they were taking care of students… I wanted to make sure that they were okay, and that was my main focus. I was just scared that entire morning, until I got the call from (Kassandra) telling me that they were okay.”

The siblings were very proud of their mother’s actions and composure in the face of one of the most harrowing experiences a teacher might ever encounter.

“Learning what Mom did was very cool, because obviously she’s one of my heroes,” said Jered. “Both of these women are the two biggest heroes of my life and it’s really cool to see how, for the community, she’s a hero for them now too, and they get to see her like I do.”

Kassandra agreed with her brother’s admiration of their parents.

“I’ve always seen my moms like true heroes and it’s just nice that now other people know. Sadly, not why other people know, but I’m glad that she was able to be here and help when she was needed,” said Kassandra, then speaking to her mother directly. “You were exactly where you were supposed to be when you were supposed to be there.”

The La Giusa-Riedman family. Photo by Jade Aubuchon/KHTS News

Riedman, La Giusa’s wife, is also a teacher at Saugus High with a classroom within the same M building, just down the hall. Although they were mere feet away from one another on opposite sides of a locked door, they were unable to reunite until the evacuation at Central Park.

Reidman’s pride and worry for her wife were palpable as she spoke, describing how La Giusa humbly takes her own part in the event in stride.

“It’s been interesting watching (her) respond or relate to this new reality of her of having helped someone in such an extreme way… She has a tendency her whole life to downplay what she does,” said Riedman. “I can see how she is still so humble and calm about it.”

Two students were killed and another three injured in the Nov. 14, 2019 shooting. Gracie Muehlberger, 15, and Dominic Blackwell, 14, died as a result of their injuries that same day.

The shooter, 16-year-old Nathaniel Berhow, also a student, died the next day of a self-inflicted gunshot wound with his mother at his side.

In the terrible event that other educators are put in the same situation that she experienced, La Giusa emphasized the need for training of both students and staff, as well as having resources on hand, including first aid kits and easily lockable doors.

“I would pray that they had training,” said La Giusa. “I would pray that they have the Lock-Bloks, pray that they would have the clearness of mind to take care of what needs to be taken care of.”

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