University Communications and Marketing
MSU Billings pauses to honor the victims and community of Newtown, Connecticut
December 21, 2012
Contacts:
Dan Carter, University Relations, 657-2269
MSU BILLINGS NEWS SERVICES — About 50 faculty, staff and students gathered at Montana State University Billings on Friday to honor the memory of the victims of last week’s tragic deaths of students and educators in Newtown, Conn.
During an observed moment of silence at 9:30 a.m., the MSU Billings community gathered in Peaks to Plains Park to quietly reflect on the loss of the 20 schoolchildren and six adults who died in a shooting rampage one week ago. Chancellor Rolf Groseth said the short ceremony was fitting for a university has students and teachers at the heart of its mission. A moment of silence, he said, gave the MSU community an opportunity to reflect on lives cut short and potential unrealized.
The bell at Peaks to Plains was then tolled 26 times for each of the victims.
Similar remembrances were held at 9:30 a.m. local time across the country, which was the time when the assault occurred on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook school in Newtown.
PHOTO ABOVE: MSU Billings faculty and staff gathered around a bell at Peaks to Plains Park on Friday, Dec. 21, in a moment of silence for the victims and community of Newtown, Conn. The bell was rung 26 times for each victim of last week’s tragic shooting at Sandy Hook school.