Eagle Era

AHS students and staff remember and reflect on their Black Friday at Valley Fair

By Royden Liang & Tegbir Kaur

Sports/Opinion Editor, Co-Editor-in-Chief

On Black Friday, November 28, 2025, a targeted shooting at Westfield Valley Fair Mall in San Jose resulted in 3 non-fatal injuries. The suspect, a 17-year-old probationer with ties to a criminal gang, opened fire at a suspected member of a rival gang. The young man he intended to target was injured, and a teenage girl and an adult woman were caught in the crossfire. The Santa Clara County District Attorney (DA) is pushing to convict the suspect of attempted murder, with the goal of trying him as an adult rather than as a juvenile due to the severity of the crime. 

Among the thousands of shoppers at Valley Fair who froze in panic at the sound of gunshots ringing through the air were various AHS students and staff. Grace Song (10) recollected, “There was a really loud sound; at first I didn’t process that it was a gunshot.” Remembering the chaotic atmosphere, she said, “Everyone was really panicked, and I was really panicked, too. Everyone just started sprinting, and in the hiding area, people were really worried.”

English 12 and AP U.S. History teacher Ms. Fronda didn’t initially hear the gunshots. She said, “I saw people running and screaming. I didn’t know what was going on, but I assumed it was a shooting because that’s just something that you’re trained to think about in America nowadays.” 

Many students share her caution. Sahana Pandian (12) said, “From now on, anytime I’m in a big mall or a concert, I’ll definitely be aware of the emergency exits and think to myself, ‘What would I do if something were to go wrong?’”

The shooting took a large emotional toll on many students who continue to process their experiences that day. “I was just thinking back,” reflected Chloe Dang (12), “if I changed any movement or any little thing—had I stopped at one more store or had anything happened differently—what would have happened? Would I have been at the place of the shooting?” 

Dang felt grateful she was safe, but remains concerned that shootings are so common. “I’m still a little shocked, but it just makes me more sad that this is reality,” she said. “Even at schools, people shouldn’t be scared that there’ll be a shooting. It’s sad that this is what the world has become.” 

Panicked, mallgoers exited Westfield Valley Fair amid flashing police lights after the shooting. “I thought Valley Fair would be a safe place, especially because it’s so popular and a lot of teens go there,” said Chloe Dang (12). “But the fact that that happened kind of shows you, wow, it can happen anywhere” (Photo Credit: The Los Angeles Times).

According to a statement on their website, the San Jose Police Department apprehended the suspect on November 30th, charging him with attempted murder. When Dang found out that the suspect was 17 years old, she was shocked. “I forgot that I am 17 years old—that he’s the same age as us teenagers in high school. If we look around at our classmates, we never think that they would be the type of person to do that.”

The gravity of the crime has renewed the debate on the severity of legal consequences for juveniles. According to Santa Clara County’s Supervising Deputy DA of the Juvenile Justice Team, Alex Adams, a sentence of a maximum of 5 years for attempted murder for juveniles increases to a maximum of 7 years to life in adult court.

“A lot of these gangs are recruiting young kids to do dirty work on their behalf because they know they’ll get a lenient sentence,” said Ms. Fronda. “Using a gun warrants pretty strict repercussions.” 

Pandian agreed that the consequences should be more stringent, especially because the suspect had previously been arrested for carrying a concealed firearm. She said, “I don’t understand why they’re letting someone off that easily, even though they’ve been involved in something similar to that before.” 

Dang believes in striking a balance between extreme adult consequences and relaxed juvenile penalties. “He’s 17 years old. He still has a lot of potential to get better, but just [the juvenile penalty] is not enough and is not going to change him,” said Dang. “I think that in this case, he should be tried as a juvenile, but with more severe consequences to still allow him to assimilate back into society.”

Deputy DA Adams explained the reasoning behind asking for adult charges for certain juvenile defendants. “For serious cases involving older youth who are close to turning 18 years old—when we don’t think that there is enough time left to rehabilitate this minor in the juvenile system—we ask the judge to transfer the minor from juvenile court to adult court, where they will face a longer sentence,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that they’re not going to get rehabilitation. In fact, our trajectory over the last 30 years has been moving towards turning the adult system more rehabilitative, particularly towards youthful offenders.”

The incident has also renewed fervor in the ongoing conversation around gun violence. Recognizing that the consequences of this issue expand beyond herself, Ms. Fronda said, “Now that I’m a mom, I’m very scared for what the world will look like in the future. Is gun violence just going to continue to get worse?”

The prevalence of gun violence has left many concerned about the lack of action to prevent shootings. “People just accept it nowadays. If we hear on the news that there’s another school shooting, people say, ‘That sucks,’ and we move on. Nothing has ever changed,” Dang said. “People are just desensitized to it. It happens all across America too often; it’s taken too many. In a month, maybe even two weeks, people will forget about it. People are going to go back to that mall, and it’s going to be left in history.