‘Their faces were glowing;’ Northwestern community cheers on students heading back to school

GERMAN TWP., Clark County — Students at Northwestern Local Schools are heading back to class Friday for the first time since Tuesday’s deadly school bus crash.

Billie Sumpter of Springfield is a Northwestern graduate and came up with the idea to go to the crash site and cheer on the kids as their school buses pass.

“I just feel like the kids need it, they need that support, they need to know this isn’t going to happen every day. It was an accident, you know, could it of been prevented? Yeah, I mean, but like most things, sometimes you just can’t get the outcome [you want]. So, I just wanted them to know that the community is behind them,” Sumpter said.

Thursday night, Sumpter put a message out on Facebook asking the community to meet her at the crash site and cheer on the kids as they returned to school.

“You can see the faces of these children driving by today. They were so happy that we were here, they were waving their little arms off too,” Sumpter said.

Sumpter and the other community members who gathered to cheer on the children hope this is a sign to them that they are loved and everything is going to be okay.

“What a great start to the day when you’re driving to school and you have people cheering for you and everything. Their faces were glowing, so it was wonderful to see,” Sumpter said.

People throughout the Miami Valley have shown up since the crash happened on Tuesday, and Sumpter accredits that to the sense of community in a small town. But, the support doesn’t end when the German Township lines meet those that neighbor them, people all over the state have been finding ways to show their support.

Sumpter said the community needs prayer. She said other ways to help include reaching out to the school to see what the children need or finding a way to donate to those directly impacted.

“I saw someone had put on Facebook, they were going to try to get school supplies and for the kids that had lost their backpacks and all these things, so I think the school would be a good place to start if you don’t know a family personally,” Sumpter said.

Throughout the community, everyone is stepping up. People who don’t have any connection to those directly impacted still want to help in whatever way they can.

“It has really meant a lot to see that there are still good people out there. You know one bad thing happened, but look at all the good that is coming out,” Sumpter said.

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