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Reynoldsburg Schools and City hold Candlelight Vigil in Honor of Uvalde Victims
RCS Vigil

Reynoldsburg City Schools, along with the City of Reynoldsburg, hosted a candlelight vigil on June 1. The vigil was in honor of the 21 lives lost in Uvalde, Texas, last week due to a mass school shooting. 


Those participating in the vigil met at Hannah Ashton Middle School at 5:30 p.m. where the vigil opened with a prayer from a local pastor. There was a performance from members of the Reynoldsburg High School orchestra, recent RHS graduate Kimmie Shook sang Amazing Grace, a student perspective, and words from City Council President Angie Jenkins and incoming Superintendent Garilee Ogden. The names of the victims were also read aloud and honored. Following the ceremony inside, attendees and participants proceeded outside to light candles in remembrance of the lives lost. There were over 60 participants in attendance.

In addition to the vigil, Reynoldsburg City Schools Board of Education members called on fellow elected officials on Wednesday, June 1, to take action to protect schools from mass shootings like the one seen in Uvalde.


In their letter to elected officials, the Board of Education wrote, “our schools are a sacred place, a community of life and hope, of learning and love, of solitude and safety.  As parents, we gently guide our children onto the school bus each morning, with a kiss on the cheek and a squeeze of the hand, giving them over, not to strangers, but to a school community who loves them and cares for them, and promises to do everything in their power to keep them safe.”


Reynoldsburg City Schools and the Board of Education hope that our elected officials will use their “elected powers to make a change, a real change, for the future.”


To read the letter in its entirety, click here.