CRAIGHEAD COUNTY, Ark. – It’s been years since chaos erupted at Westside Middle School near Jonesboro. Shots were fired, killing four young girls and their teacher 32-year-old Shannon Wright. 

It’s a day that forever changed for Mitch and Zane Wright, Shannon’s husband and son. 

“You feel sad some days, you feel angry some days, you feel happy some days,” Zane said. 

Zane was only two and a half when his mother was killed. 

“Yeah, I lost my mom that day and I had to grow up without a mom, but I felt like because of that I’ve become a stronger person. I felt like I can get through other harder stuff that I need to get through,” Zane said. 

Thinking of that tragic day two decades ago still brings tears to Mitch’s eyes. 

“I was running up to the school and there was a guy from church who caught me as I was getting to the elementary campus and he told me Shannon was shot and they’ve already taken her to the hospital,” Mitch said. 

In the years since, they say it’s their faith that’s carried them through. 

“As you get older and your life progresses, you can see in little different ways that God can use tragedies to turn it around a little bit and make beautiful things come out of that,” Zane said. 

Zane has since married and is about to graduate college. His plan is to become a teacher, just like his mom. 

“The best compliment that I had was from the guy that I was interning with. He stop me and say, ‘You know, you remind me a lot of your mom when you teach.'” Zane said. 

He even spent part of his student teaching where his mom took her last breath, the Westside School District. 

“When I first went there it was more, am I mentally tough enough for this? Can I do this? Am I ready to teach kids the same way my mom did? In the same school that my mom did?” Zane questioned. 

In a place that had much sorrow for the Wright family, Zane says he now finds comfort inside. 

“It was easy to not think of all the bad things that have happened there. It was easy to kind of get lost teaching the kids,” Zane said. 

“It’s amazing, even though he wasn’t around her that much, I see so much of her in him,” Mitch said. 

As time continues to move forward, so does this family. The father and son say they will never forget that day that molded them into the people they are today.