Gretna School District Carefully Honoring Memories of Teen Crash Victims

GRETNA, Neb. (AP) – One Sarpy County school district is carefully trying to honor the memories of four high school students killed in a car crash without extending the grieving process.

Handmade memorials have cropped up in the parking lot at Gretna High School for the four girls who were killed June 17. A fifth girl was hospitalized.

The students who have worked on the memorials want some to last at least long enough for the injured girl to see.

But school policy and child mental health experts don’t favor highly public memorials dedicated to students or staffers who have died.

Gretna’s Superintendent told the Omaha World-Herald that, at some point, “We have to move out of the grieving process. That’s what’s healthiest for our kids.”