It has been a difficult week for students at Seymour High School, and about 40 students and faculty gathered outside the school early Wednesday morning for prayer.
The event was organized by the school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes and aimed to provide comfort and remember students Jenna Helton and Martin Martinez, who were killed in a crash late Saturday in Cortland.
Brownstown Central High School students Nevaeh Law and Brittany Watson were also lost.
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It was the third day students returned to school without Helton and Martinez with them.
Pastor Rick Grant of Surprise Christian Church spoke and offered prayer as students quietly gathered near the entrance of the school. He said the grieving process often includes the feeling of not being able to keep going, even when a person’s faith is strong.
He read a verse from 1 Peter that instructs Christians to cast anxiety on God and encouraged students to follow that example.
“This is an opportunity to invite him in and give you the strength to enable you to help others to deal with their struggles,” Grant said. “These are the times we become the believers because he can do things in us that we didn’t think was possible.”
Makenna Fee, a senior and leader of the FCA chapter, said she did not know the four students personally, but some of her friends did.
“I know there are a lot of people hurting, and it has been hard for a lot of students,” she said after the service.
Fee said school has been different the last few days, and she has noticed it much more quiet as people grieve and process what has happened.
“Everyone is kind of down right now, and you can tell while walking in the hallways,” she said. “It has been hard to see all the students that have needed to be taken out of class and even for the ones that did not have a relationship with them.”
Fee said the student body will be like a family, and the FCA can help their peers through a difficult time.
“I think a lot of people feel alone right now,” she said. “I’m hoping getting a group like this together shows that we’re thinking of them and we all want to help.”
Principal Greg Prange said he also thinks FCA students can help fellow classmates in the coming days.
“We’ve got a lot of students that are really, really hurting,” he told the group. “I look at you guys as ambassadors that can help them through the grieving process.”
Prange encouraged the students to lean on their own faith as they set out to help other students.
The students offered prayers and signed cards that will be sent to the victims’ families, Fee said.