Oxford High School memorial to be removed ahead of students' return to campus
A memorial created for the victims of the Oxford High School shooting on the school grounds will be removed before the first day students return to the campus on Monday.
Oxford Community Schools superintendent Tim Throne said the memorial will be removed to further students' "healing process" in the Wednesday announcement.
"The temporary memorial that has been created by our community played a beautiful role in honoring and remembering our lost Wildcats and provided a place for our community to grieve," Throne said. "As our high school welcomes students back to the building on Monday, trauma specialist Dr. Henry, along with those from other schools that have gone through similar situations, have advised us that the temporary memorial should not be there when our students return to campus."
Families of the victims will be able to take home any items from the memorial, and anything not kept by the families will be stored for potential future use.
Throne noted the memorial has been professionally 3D scanned.
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"We will soon begin to plan for a permanent memorial to honor the beautiful lives that have been lost," he said. "This will be a long and well thought out process. It will first begin with consulting the families of the victims and discussing their wishes. Then, a committee of students, staff, and parents will be created to begin this planning."
The memorial will be removed Sunday, so anyone who wants to visit one last time is encouraged to do so through Saturday.
Contact Emma Stein: estein@freepress.com and follow her on Twitter @_emmastein.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Oxford memorial to be removed ahead of students' return
