YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – The Valley Christian School District has released a statement after one of their students was shot and killed last week.

The victim was identified as 15-year-old Amya Monserrat.

The school said that students returned to school on Tuesday for a time of prayer, healing and counseling.

Head of Schools Shelley Murray released a statement on Wednesday, saying, in part:

Murray then said the following:

“We were overwhelmed and humbled by the outpouring of love and support we received from our community. I cannot adequately express our appreciation for everyone who came to our campus yesterday. We could not have met the many needs of our students without the assistance of grief counselors, area clergy, community leaders, representatives of the Mayor’s office, and CIRV, who “showed up.

I know our students felt safe, secure, and loved just by seeing so many caring adults in the hallways and their classrooms. We saw, firsthand, how our community comes together in times of tragedy. We realize Tuesday was just the beginning of the healing process for our school community. Because of the generous offering of time and talent from our community, we will be able to continue offering counseling services, as needed, to the students for the remainder of the school year.

As Christians, we know that God can, and does, bring good out of tragedy. We have already seen that from reports yesterday of students accepting Christ and rededicating their lives to Christ. In addition, our students have already begun to discuss ways that they can address the problem of youth and gun violence that affects our community. As we saw yesterday in the pleading our some of the local officials for change, our prayer is that Amya’s death will be forever memorialized as the start of real change in our community.”

Shelley Murray- Valley Christian Head of Schools