The students at St. Raphael Academy in Pawtucket created a banner sending their prayers and condolences to their Florida peers with the message, “We are praying for you, Parkland .. and for change.”
On the afternoon of Feb. 14, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz allegedly went on a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, shortly before school was to let out for the day, killing 17 and wounding many more.
The suspect, who carried an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to the school, was apprehended about an hour later and is being held without bond on 17 counts of first-degree premeditated murder in the attack.
Amid the outpouring of sympathy and calls for gun control and other action to stop mass shootings was a statement from the Sisters of Mercy. The community said its members were united in prayer and expressed grief, sympathy and love for “the victims, the families and the witnesses whose sense of safety in their schools has been irrevocably broken.”
