Other schools offer support for Marysville Pilchuck

Red-clad students around Snohomish County are cutting out paper hearts, decorating banners and posting photos and messages of support on social media after Friday’s shootings at Marysville Pilchuck High School.

They’ve worn red and white, the school’s colors, in class and at sporting events. Photos on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram show students from dozens of high schools showing support in various ways. Some stood in the shape of a heart, others held signs and one group formed their hands into hearts underwater at a pool.

The message is the same in every image: “We love Marysville Pilchuck.”

In Arlington and Snohomish, students remember when they were struggling with trauma. In Arlington, it was the deadly Oso mudslide in March. In Snohomish, a stabbing nearly killed a student — three years to the day before the Marysville shootings.

Banners, cards and signs of solidarity mattered after the violence that almost took the life of April Lutz. The high school freshman and her friend, Bekah Staudacher, were stabbed by a classmate.

The town rallied around the girls, and support poured in from other communities. Neighboring high schools sent heartfelt messages of unity.

“Those small expressions, and they may seem small, have a powerful impact,” district spokeswoman Kristin Foley said. “It means a lot that others were rooting for us.”

So Snohomish teachers and coaches have reached out.

“They helped pull us through,” Foley said. “I am confident that the community will be there for Marysville.”

At a time when people are reeling from the inexplicable violence of a teenager, Guy Kennedy gets choked up thinking about the kindness shown by his daughter and her friends, who are students at Arlington High School.

Arlington teens were rattled Friday when news of the nearby shootings broke, Kennedy said. He was talking with daughter Devin. She’s a freshman, the same age as the victims.

“She said, ‘Marysville was there for us in our time of need. We need to be there for them in theirs,’ ” he said. “I thought, ‘Oh my god, you’re 14, and you can think that.’ They really feel this, and I’m so proud.”

Devin knows what it’s like to need support from peers. After the Oso mudslide, students from Marysville Pilchuck sent messages through social media offering support or a shoulder to lean on as their neighbors grappled with the grief of losing 43 people in the slide.

A photo taken in March shows students at Marysville Pilchuck standing behind a “We love Oso” sign. On Friday, the students at Arlington High School took a photo of their own, standing behind a “Stay Strong MP” banner.

“They did a lot for us after the mudslide and we just thought it would be our responsibility and our honor to support them, and show them we always have their backs,” Devin said. “It might seem like just teenager things, but that kind of stuff was really useful and helpful, just knowing you’re not alone, and someone was there for us.”

Devin is on her school’s volleyball team. They play Marysville Pilchuck on Wednesday night. It’s Arlington’s last game of the season, which is traditionally a celebration of senior athletes. Instead, the players voted unanimously to do a “Red Out,” where the team and fans will wear the color in support of Marysville Pilchuck. Each player from Marysville Pilchuck will be presented with two roses, one white and one red.

Andrea Conley, a spokeswoman for the Arlington School District, said Arlington administrators visited Marysville on Monday, offering resources. The district, with many others, posted material online to help adults talk to children about violence.

At Jackson High School in Mill Creek, teachers didn’t address the shooting right away, but students have started a campaign that has people talking, said Mitchell Weholt, student body president.

He started a poster campaign to show support for Marysville Pilchuck. By Tuesday, 21 schools had joined the effort, making large signs and having students sign them. The goal was to gather more than 15,000 signatures by Wednesday.

Mitchell and others plan to hang the posters at Marysville Pilchuck for students’ return to classes.

The campaign continues on social media, with a Twitter hashtag #MPinOurHearts gaining momentum. Students cut hearts out of red construction paper and post photos using the hashtag. There are hundreds of photos online.

“It’s been really cool to watch this thing spread,” Mitchell said.

Younger students are also getting involved. Terra Arellano, a fifth-grader at Everett’s Jackson Elementary, is organizing schoolmates to take a stand against violence at a memorial event Nov. 7.

“We’re going to make a giant circle,” said Terra, 11. “We’re going to think about a world with nothing but peace. That way there’s more positivity.”

Zach Anders, a student journalist at Jackson High, said he’s never seen students pull together the way they have in the past few days.

“It very well could have been me,” said Zach, 18. “It’s the students who are most affected. And it’s going to be the students who dictate the direction of this healing process.”

Has your school shown its support for Marysville Pilchuck? Tweet your photos to @everettherald, email us at webfeedback@heraldnet.com or share on our Facebook page.

Students showing love for #MPHS. Read more here: http://t.co/ch2bdiuS6b. &check out this example from #Darrington. pic.twitter.com/hNxlNyurB0
— Kari Bray (@KariBray) October 29, 2014

#MPHS love sent from Lakewood High. Came w/ message: “Our hearts go out to the Tomahawks. We are here to support you” pic.twitter.com/kP4dDCT7Ff
— Kari Bray (@KariBray) October 29, 2014