McGregor ISD lifts up students, community in the wake of shooting that left five dead

MCGREGOR, Texas (KWTX) - The McGregor community woke up this morning to a hole left by those five lives lost on Thursday.

As everyone tries to find a bit of normalcy during these times, McGregor ISD and its students are doing what they can to make that happen.

Now the community is rising up in any way they can to show their support for the victim’s families and anyone else experiencing violence at home.

Two of the five lives lost were current students at McGregor High School.

District admin had the tough choice of ceasing school operations or continuing them; later announcing that school would continue Friday.

Counselors from various central Texas locations have all donated their time to the students of McGregor ISD to work through any emotions they may be feeling as they navigate this tough time.

Superintendent Lenamon told KWTX that one of the greatest things they can provide during this time is a sense of normalcy for students and staff.

“We have a lot of things that went into our decision to open or not. That was the question to start with, ‘do you even have school?’ and we decided that it was important for us to be open for several reasons,” said Superintendent Lenamon.

When deciding to open or close school on Friday, district admin took into consideration families who can’t take off of work and students who only receive breakfast and lunch if they’re at school.

Students took it upon themselves to show support for the lives lost by wearing orange clothing to school.

Wearing orange is meant to bring awareness to gun related violence.

The act was organized by student, Madelyn Denn, and was quickly spread throughout social media.

“I organized this movement because McGregor is a community who comes together in hard times. I wanted everybody affected by the event to know we as a school love them and support them and will stand beside them at this time,” said Denn.

McGregor High School is continuing with their Friday night varsity football game as well as a volleyball match.

When in full gear, the football players will bear a decal on their helmet in solidarity with the five lives lost.

The decals resemble a paw and hold five crosses in the middle. One for each life lost.

Superintendent Lenamon told KWTXthat football means something special to McGregor and the kids showing support in their own way is how this community will keep going.

“It’s a point of pride for us in McGregor. We have good kids, we have outstanding kids in McGregor,” said Superintendent Lenamon.

Along with the helmet decals, McGregor cheerleaders and dance team will add gold and black to their uniform to show their support.

At this time, Troy High School has something planned in remembrance and will unveil it during the Friday night game, set to start at 7:30 p.m.

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