Classmates remember high school students who drowned in Lake Hartwell

PICKENS COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) – A growing number of flowers line the Six Mile Highway bridge, as students continue to drop off tokens of love to honor their friends.

“It’s really affected a lot of people because like I said, they’re super friendly to everyone,” said Mackenzie Witt, a junior at D.W. Daniel High School.

The School District of Pickens County said since they were notified of the Daniel High School students’ disappearance, they began planning for resources like grief counselors to be available.

Crews recovered the bodies of 16-year-old Rayan Alnasser and 15-year-old Zakaria Chaar Monday, according to the Pickens County Coroner’s Office.

“We’re looked at like the family that jumps in and supports at times like these,” said Darian Byrd, the communications officer for the School District of Pickens County. “Schools, we become family with the students and with their families.”

Students spending the day with one another on Monday agreed, saying for many of them, it’s their first time dealing with grief like this. But they’ve been able to find comfort in those who know them best, and feel their friends who lost their lives would find comfort in that, too.

“I think they would be really happy that the community is coming together and not everyone just so sad, I think they’d love that,” said Witt. “Everyone’s coming together and just loving everyone, I think that’s what they would want to happen, everyone to be happy and love each other.”

The district said they will continue to support students as they begin planning events to honor their friends, rather than events to celebrate the end of the school year.

“We’re wrapping up the end of the year, we have three full days left and this is a week of celebration,” said Byrd. “Quickly, you move from celebration to tragedy and it’s not what students were expecting to be going through at a time when students are graduating.”

A vigil is being planned for a later time. As we learn more, we will provide updates.

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