On Tuesday, Sept. 6, students and staff were invited to show their support for Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District on their first day back to school by wearing maroon clothes and t-shirts that display the phrase “Uvalde Strong”. 

Uvalde CISD suffered a horrible incident at the end of last school year when an 18-year-old gunman entered Robb Elementary and fired, killing 19 children and two teachers. The tragedy was the deadliest shooting in the state of Texas and left many families mourning an unimaginable loss. 

“It is important for (the students) to understand the situations that have gone on in our area, specifically in our state, and how tragic those situations are, how devastating they can be to those around them and how having support from all corners can be an uplifting thing,” said teacher Audreana Underbrink, who gave extra credit to any of her students that wore maroon on Tuesday. 

The invitation to wear maroon gained a fairly good turnout with a lot of students showing up to stand in solidarity with Uvalde CISD. 

“It was kind of like, you know, a pride for Texas thing and to show support for the little Texas school and the terrible event that happened,” said junior Leland Guy when asked about how he felt about the request from the school to wear maroon.

“When I saw how many students were coming in and that actually participated, I was overwhelmed and I was super proud of our students because I felt like they understood the assignment,” said Flour Bluff High School principal, Linda Medley.

Hopefully, Uvalde felt the support that they were being sent from schools across Texas on their first day back at school.