Shock. Denial. Confusion. Despair. All of these words and more describe the Mounties’ emotions when the death of Queen Elizabeth II was announced at the school’s annual club fair.

Whether it was to promote the club of their own, sign up for the clubs that interested them, or very likely, take candy from the tables, the club fair had attracted a large crowd of Mounties.

Despite the students entering the gym with different intentions and expectations, soon they would all have the same takeaway, and it had nothing to do with the clubs (or candy).

Several of the club leaders had their iPads out and had a sheet pulled up so any student interested in their club could sign up. This made it very easy for the students to see notifications the moment they were sent, making the gym vulnerable to a mass riot, if an announcement of shocking news were to appear, which is exactly what happened.

“The Queen has died!” Quinn Shields ’24 shouted before the interviewer could finish her sentence.

Quinn wasn’t the only one frantic; most attendees of the club fair were as well.

“I’m feeling sick honestly, I can’t believe this. I don’t know how to control myself,” Saanai Kaori ’24 said.

A week after Queen Elizabeth II’s death, when the students and teachers were more composed, they had a clear recitation of what happened at that time on September 8th.

“I was walking in the hallway and some girl screamed it [that the queen died] and honestly I was pretty upset. I think she was a very strong woman who ran her country, and I feel like she was a really good leader to look up to, so it was very upsetting,” Alexa Kennedy ‘23 said.

Ms. Danielle Molan, Director of Music, along with many other teachers that were teaching their classes at the time, still experienced the shock of the news despite not attending the club fair or being in the hallway.

“I was in my classroom and I was teaching creating digital music and one of the students told me. Well, my initial reaction was that it wasn’t true because of the way she told the story. There was an uproar in the hallway, where one person said it and everyone started saying it. I looked it up and it was real—I was surprised,” Ms. Molan said.

Mrs. Kristen MacPherson, the assistant to the principal Mrs. Elizabeth Blessing, recalled her experience hearing the news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death.

“I was in my office and a few of the girls came in—some were crying; it was very serious and sad. They wanted to make an announcement the queen had passed, but we had to get permission first.”