Students send heartfelt messages to Florida

Hundreds of students throughout Lincoln Public Schools sent letters and hand-decorated hearts to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida this week, part of a nationwide gesture of support for those affected by the school shooting in the Broward County suburb.

Lorinda Rice, LPS curriculum specialist for visual art, was among the art educators from across the country who received an email from a Florida colleague asking schools to send handmade paper hearts and messages of support to Stoneman Douglas. Among the LPS students who responded were many of those who attend the KnightHouse afterschool program at Lincoln Southeast High School.

On Friday, the school mailed more than 200 hearts, which will join the thousands of others that will be hung on the walls at Stoneman Douglas. Those hearts include messages such as “In this together,” “Stay strong” and “We’re thinking about you.”

“I just really wanted to make one and let them know how I feel and that we’re thinking of them,” said Southeast senior Malik Fair.

At North Star High School on Wednesday, students in Lexi Gardner’s Advanced Composition course wrote letters of support to Stoneman Douglas students. One of her student’s letters read, in part: “I want you, along with your classmates, to know that I, my school and millions of other people around the United States stand with you.”

“I’m so proud of the compassion they showed,” Gardner said.


Published: February 23, 2018, Updated: February 23, 2018

"I just really wanted to make one and let them know how I feel and that we’re thinking of them."

Malik Fair, senior at Southeast High School