Woodland Teacher Organizes Memorial For Uvalde Shooting Victims: 'People Need A Place To Go To Grieve'
WOODLAND (CBS13) -- As students and teachers are buried in Uvalde, students and teachers in California are hurting and looking for ways to express themselves.
One Woodland elementary school teacher decided to take action.
"It actually came to me Friday night," Teresa Morales said.
Backpacks were placed atop a bookcase at Woodland Memorial Library, one for each of the students and teachers shot and killed in Uvalde.
Morales, a fourth-grade teacher at Beaman Elementary School, put the display together to cope with her sadness.
"I spent the whole week in a funk - in a depression - waiting for someone to do some sort of vigil … or just somewhere we could go to be together," Morales said.
The daughter of activists, Morales rallied her family to help her put her plan into action.
"My parents got involved. My mom was the one that sewed the ribbons, my dad helped set it up, and then it just kind of grew," Morales said. "The community pretty much came together; it was a memorial; it was beautiful."
Tuesday night, students from her school joined as the backpacks were hung along Main Street in Woodland.
The backpacks were then moved to the library to preserve the memorial.
"It's so sweet and so thoughtful - and so heartbreaking. What a wonderful idea," Erin Harrington said.
Morales says there are plans for another memorial.
"I feel like people need a place to go to grieve," Morales said.
Morales says her elementary school was ready to provide emotional support for students impacted. In the last couple of years, they have had a counselor available for when tragedies strike.