When These El Paso Teachers Asked for Letters of Comfort for Their Students, They Received Thousands

Two El Paso elementary school teachers responded to the Walmart shooting that rocked their Texas community by asking people to send comforting letters to their students. They didn’t expect to be inundated with more than 1,000 cards—and counting.

In the aftermath of the mass shooting, Teresa Garrett, a fourth grade teacher at Tom Lea Elementary School, and Elvira Flores, a fourth grade teacher at Hillside Elementary School, shared a post in a private Facebook group asking for postcards "to help our students know there is plenty of good in the world.”

“As teachers, we may only be able to say so much,” Garrett and Flores continued, per USA Today. “We think concrete messages of support would help us calm some fears.”

Their message, which has since been deleted due the overwhelming response, elicited a whirlwind of responses from all over the globe.

“It’s been overwhelming. I can’t even put it into words,” Garrett said in an El Paso Independent School District news release. “People are sending us postcards, letters, messages and even items for our kids. It’s just proof that the world is populated with wonderful individuals who care about people, even if they don’t’ know them personally.”

Flores expressed a similar sentiment. “My goal with this request was to let my kids know that there are other voices out there other than the voice from the man who attacked our city,” she said. “I wanted them to hear a message of love from the majority of the people in this beautiful world.”

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Garrett, who has spent hours trying to respond to every email and Facebook message she has received, has not had time to count how many people have reached out to her personally, but believes it is in the thousands.

"I wish I could express how you all have made me feel as well as my students," she said in a Facebook post.