The Days After: Apalachee High School, Winder, Georgia
In September, I had a chance to visit my home in Georgia for the first time in five years. I arrived on the 2nd, and two days later, the news cut through the peaceful afternoon about a terrible attack at Apalachee High School in Winder, a community very close to my own. The news was delivered in the same fashion as the news of other school shootings: as an emergency TV news report interrupting the weekday afternoon cable TV programs. Some time later, the news confirmed that the attack took the lives of two students and two teachers.
Nothing, however, could have prepared me for the scene at Apalachee High School in the days after the attack. A makeshift memorial was made at the base of the school flagpole, where students, faculty, and community members placed their flowers, notes, posters, and other items. It grew over the next few days to cover a great amount of the area surrounding the flagpole.
In silence, the community of Winder came to pay their respects and tried to make sense of what had happened. In tears, people mourned their friends, colleagues, students, and teachers, whose lives had been abruptly and violently cut short. Spiritual leaders led families in whispered prayer. Students & faculty members wrote their final goodbyes in Sharpie, on wooden crosses set up next to the memorial.
One man’s voice cut through the silence. He authoritatively led those present in a prayer in which he questioned what on earth would cause such a terrible event to happen.
In his words, “the absence of God in our lives” was to blame.
View the photos here.
Nothing could have prepared me for the scene at Apalachee High School in the days after the attack.
