Mourning The Victims: Local Reaction to School Shooting | FOX8 ...

People all over Northeast Ohio are mourning the victims of Friday?s deadly school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon is asking for prayers for the victims and their families.
Bishop Lennon says, ?In response to the horrific tragedy at the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school and the deaths of students and staff, I ask everyone to remember the victims, their families, and the wider community in your prayers. May those who died, experience God?s merciful love and eternal rest and peace.?

Congresswoman Marcia Fudge also released a statement on the shootings:

?Words fail to describe the sorrow and grief many of us feel following the tragedy in Connecticut that resulted in the loss of so many lives, including innocent children. I pray for the victims, their families and the first responders. I mourn for each and every child lost to senseless violence anywhere.

Mass shootings such as this underscore that we need to have a serious conversation as a nation on how to protect the rights of our citizens to safety and life itself as well as preserve the right to bear arms.? For now, the most important thing we must do is to keep the people of Connecticut, especially the victims and their families in our thoughts and prayers at this difficult time.?

Congressman Dennis Kucinich?s statement:

?Today?s shooting was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. Our hearts ache for the victims and their families. While we don?t know why this attack took place, it is an attack on education, on public safety and on our children.

For those of us outside the direct impact of this tragedy, our mourning turns into a search for ways to ensure that these shootings do not continue to happen.

There is an undercurrent of violence in our society that is becoming more powerful. Whenever it surfaces it brings great tragedy and we pray: never again. But ?never again? keeps happening. Malls, schools, movie theaters; these murders attack our sense of community.

It is long past time that we take an organized approach to addressing the violence in our society and that is exactly what the proposal for a cabinet level Department of Peace is all about. We must reject violence and take an organized approach to averting violence.

My thoughts are with the parents of the school children and the families of the adults who lost their lives.?

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine released the following statement, that includes a response on the progress of Ohio schools in filing school safety plans:

?First and foremost, Fran and I are praying for the families affected by the horrible and unspeakable tragedy which occurred today in Connecticut.

After the shooting that occurred earlier this year in Chardon, and several times since, I urged schools around Ohio who had not yet filed school safety plans to do so. These plans are critical for first responders to respond to incidents at school facilities. I am pleased to report that in response to our most recent call for updated plans, over 1000 Ohio schools filed plans with our office. ?However, there are still 145 schools that have never filed plans with our office.

Our Crime Victim Services section has contacted the Connecticut Crime Victims Compensation program to provide any assistance they need at this time.?

A page has been created on Facebook to remember the victims, 20 of them children.

Click here to see it.

Source: http://fox8.com/2012/12/14/mourning-the-victims-local-reaction-to-school-shooting/