Belmont High Banner Sends Hopeful Messages to Newtown

Just after the final class of the day, fellow Belmont High School sophomores Nicole Saidnawey and Grace Ramsey strolled into the school's cafeteria, laid down their heavy with books backpacks and proceeded to a paper banner hanging on the wall.

"To our friends at Newtown High" read the sign as Saidnawey and Ramsey began to add their own messages to those of hundreds of classmates who signed the banner with words of support, hope and healing.

"The whole world is crying but you shed the most tears. Keep going," said one message. 

The banner, hung up at the beginning of the day by High School Principal Dan Richards, is being sent to the local high school in Connecticut where many students are former pupils of Sandy Hook Elementary School which experienced the second most deadly school shooting in US history. 

"I feel like the banner is a good idea because it just shows them that people are thinking of them," said Ramsey. 

The banner with words of hope and healing is also an opportunity for Belmont High School students to help initiate discussion about their own feelings about the shooting and hopefully begin releaving their own anxiety about the tragic events, said Belmont Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston.