A tribute from a Tennessee liberal arts college to the victims of last week's Florida school shooting, which left 17 dead, has people heartbroken.
On Monday, Carson-Newman University (CNU) senior Elizabeth Dixon organised for 17 empty desks to sit on the sidewalk in the college's campus, representing the 17 victims of the shooting. Each empty desk also had a sheet of paper with a small bio of the person it represented.
"I wanted to make a statement both to compel students to act and also to help visualize how many lives were lost," Dixon told Knoxville's WBIR-10. "They were students, most of them were young like 15, 16 years old, and they sat at desks just like us."
On Tuesday, the tribute went viral on social media. On Twitter, thousands of people retweeted pictures of the demonstration.
Today Carson-Newman set out an empty desk for every person killed in the Parkland shooting. Seeing this just absolu… https://t.co/5l3ghgTy97
Carson Newman set out 17 chairs for those who passed. #PrayForParkland
Praying for those families who are broken hearted this morning. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, you are loved… https://t.co/TnvCZSzT0s
And on Facebook, one post from a CNU student also inspired discussion. Shon Jordan wrote on her personal Facebook that the tribute brought her to tears.
"Students passed by, read one or two, and continued to class, and I thought to myself, 'what if we couldn’t? What if we never got the chance to make it to our 12 or do whatever we planned next in our day because someone with a gun decided that in that moment, my life was over,'" she wrote.
"Those were our Carson-Newman desks. I’ve sat in them for three years now."
Jordan, a junior at CNU, told BuzzFeed News the tribute was "super impactful".
"Everyone really took to it and it hit home for a lot more people than just me," she said.
BuzzFeed News has contacted Carson-Newman University for more information.