On Wednesday, a 14 year-old opened fire at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. For the community’s Latino population, this tragedy has had huge impacts.
Every Wednesday at 6 pm, Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Athens, Georgia holds a Spanish-language mass. However, Wednesday’s mass was no ordinary mid-week worship, because many of the Latino members of the congregation come from Winder, Georgia in Barrow County, where the school shooting occurred.
Natalie is a senior in the Barrow County School System, where over a quarter of students are Latino.
“They shot up Apalachee and then there were rumors that they were going to be at our school so they locked down our school too. We were scared about our safety and stuff.”
The shooter killed four and wounded nine others. Father Samuel Porras, who delivered Wednesday’s mass, said that many members of his youth group attend Apalachee High School.
“I know these kids and they have gone through a lot and this tragedy is something they shouldn’t have to experience or no kid should ever experience,” he said.
An investigation of the shooting is still ongoing. But for the Latino families of Northeast Georgia, many of whom are immigrants seeking the American Dream, life may be permanently disrupted. For the congregation at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Father Porras wanted to deliver a message of comfort.
“Even in the midst of all this tragedy they need to feel that God loves them, even if they cannot make sense of this, that it is happening, and that it is okay to trust in the Lord,” he said.
