BALTIMORE — Baltimore City Public Schools held a vigil for the 19 students killed this school year Thursday afternoon.
The names of each student were read out loud along with their ages, then on the back of the sign was when each student would have graduated.
“Dylan King, Matthew A. Henson Elementary school, 8-years-old," announced Dr. Sonja Santelises, the CEO of BCPSS.
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Holding a box of tissues and fighting back emotions, Izaiah Carter’s mother Michelle Hines spoke with reporters about her frustration with the lack of change to stop students from dying.
“We didn’t talk about how this is going to stop, you didn’t tell us what the initiative is so why are we having a remembrance event for children killed, and the idea is this year it was 19 and last year it was less. Why does this happen every year," asked Hines.
Carter was shot and killed at a park near Patterson High School in March.
RELATED: Patterson High School student shot, killed at Joseph E. Lee Park
Since then, other students have been killed.
Hines was the only mother up there holding her child’s name.
“Our children are dying, like I don’t see how this makes sense whatsoever, I get that this was a nice idea this was a cute event," said Hines.
"I’m the only mother holding a sign cause I asked to hold it. Where are the other mothers who didn’t know about it cause they didn’t know about it," said Hines.
Hines says she’s in a support group with other mothers who lost their children to violence.
She says none of them knew about the Day of Remembrance ahead of time and she’s upset they didn’t get a chance to speak about the types of people their kids were.
Santelises shared her anger with the loss of life.
“The slaughter is not normal and we can not accept it as normal or we are not only lost as individuals but we are lost as a community," said Santelises.
19 students lost to violence and 19 families trying to grieve.
