The Miami high school attended by Trayvon Martin, the student shot and killed by a neighborhood watch leader in Central Florida, held a moment of silence for Martin this morning, students and staff have told StateImpact Florida.
Students at Dr. Michael M. Krop High School say it is the first acknowledgement of Martin’s death since he was killed while visiting his father’s girlfriend’s home near Orlando.
The moment of silence comes nearly a month after Martin’s Feb. 26 death, and hours after StateImpact Florida asked the school why the school had yet to publicly acknowledge Martin’s death.
Martin was suspended from school at the time he was shot, The Miami Herald has reported.
The school’s reaction differs for classmate Christopher Belle, who was struck and killed by a car in November, students told StateImpact Florida. The school orchestra collected donations for Belle’s family and a slideshow of Belle was shown at a performance.
“It was definitely different from what they are doing for Trayvon, which is nothing,” junior Ashley Aristide said before classes began Wednesday.
“It’s simpler to deal with something the way Christopher Belle died then the way Trayvon died,” she said. “I’m pretty sure that the school just doesn’t want to have that much commotion…because then learning in that environment would be really hard.”
StateImpact Florida has called the Miami-Dade school district for response, including whether the school followed district policy for grief counseling.
