RADFORD -- Angela Price, a 2007 graduate of RU's M.S. program in reading, recalls her students' response to the April 16, 2007, shootings at Virginia Tech. “My students had a lot of emotions to share and needed support and reassurance,” she says.

On April 17, her students, second graders at Pulaski County's Riverlawn Elementary School, expressed their emotions and thoughts about the tragedy by writing in journals. Price was impressed by their “depth of understanding” and “caring and forgiving attitudes.” Later, in an RU writing class, she learned from a fellow student about the book September 12, written by students after Sept. 11, 2001. Adapting the idea, Price guided her students to write a book called April 17, with the theme that “this scary event happened, but life continues and we know we are safe and loved.”

Price published the book through Nationwide Learning, which donated 33 copies for shooting victims' families and one for Virginia Tech President Charles Steger.

“I think this project gave the students an opportunity to heal,” she says. “The students also felt they were giving something back to Virginia Tech by honoring the victims through their writings.”