ROCK HILL, S.C. — Rather than pulling off a traditional senior prank, some Rock Hill students created a memorial to show their love and support for the students who died this week in Uvalde, Texas.
Channel 9′s Tina Terry spoke to students at Northwestern High School as they graduated Friday about the powerful message they hoped to send to hurting families.
“We’re here in our caps and gowns. Some of those kids won’t get to go to their 5th grade graduations, their 8th grade graduations,” student Lexi Cain said.
“We’re here with our caps and gowns and they’ll never have that. They were babies,” student Cayce Crowder said.
With that tragedy on their hearts, the seniors decided to do something special in honor of the 21 lives taken. They created a memorial on the grounds of their high school.
“I was like, we could take this to another level, so we went to the middle of the court and wrote out a message memoriam to the group in Texas who lost their lives,” Crowder said.
It reads, “We love Texas.”,
“To see that group do something so selfless you know, that might could have been all about them, and they chose to honor someone else, to not make that part of them. That was very touching, and I was honored to be a part of that,” said Phillip Byers, a school resource officer.
The students also carried the memory of the young victims with them as they crossed the stage.
“Today, in my heart, I’m going to walk that stage for such kids that lost their lives in that tragedy,” Cain said.
(WATCH BELOW: A timeline of the Texas elementary school mass shooting)
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