In the Tuesday school shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan, 16-year-old football star Tate Myre ran into the line of fire, attempting to disarm the gunman. Myre was fatally wounded and died shortly thereafter in a patrol car on his way to the hospital.
“Everybody was running one way, but Tate was running the other,” Ross Wingert, Myre’s football and wrestling coach, told the Detroit Free Press, “There’s no way he couldn’t have gotten out of there if he wanted to. Tate would have been the number one candidate to be able to run out of that school if he wanted to. I know Tate chose to do what he thought was right and he made the ultimate sacrifice.”
Three other students — Hana St. Juliana, 14, Madisyn Baldwin, 17 and Justin Shilling, 17 — lost their lives in the senseless crime committed by a 15-year-old suspect who has since been taken into custody. Seven others were seriously injured as well, and it is believed that more students would have lost their lives if it hadn’t been for Myre’s selfless actions.
The youngest of three sons, Myre had high ambitions to play Division I football upon graduation and had already started visiting colleges last spring. His classmates have started a petition at Change.org to rename their stadium in his honor; its description reads:
“Tate is not just a hero to his fellow students at Oxford high school but a legend. His act of bravery should be remembered forever and passed down through generations. [Tate] put his life in danger to try and help the thousands of other students at Oxford High School.”
As of Thursday morning, the petition had over 146,000 signatures.
And today we celebrate...