Claire's gambit

Claire Davis's last spoken words were to the person who shot her.  "Oh my gosh Karl, what are you doing?"

Claire tried to shine her light into the darkness that had overtaken Karl’s life. That was her gambit, armed only with kindness and concern, she tried to start a conversation with this troubled young man.

I have never before mentioned the name of a school shooter before and Claire's parents call to action for all of us is to not sweep his name under the carpet.  Karl has parent's and a sister.  "Karl is gone now and it is not our responsibility to judge him."~Mike Davis. 

Mike went on to share that he had forgiven Karl.  I was stunned by the courage he showed to be able to say his name.

The minister, challenged all of the Claire's classmates to find the other Karl's in their school.  That is the challenge for all of us.  Find the Karl's in our community, reach out, connect.  "I won't give up on you." 

This was a new perspective on school shootings that I never considered before.  I have steadfastly refused to write their names, banishing them to obscurity.

Missy Franklin spoke at Claire's service today.  She is proud to call herself a Coloradoan.  She grew up 5 miles from Arapahoe High School.  Kudo's to Missy for being a role model, for caring about Claire, for her classmates, for her community.

Colorado leads the nation in school shootings.  I love Colorado, I have lived here my entire life and as awful as that statistic is, I hope no other state will overtake us, because that will only mean that the shootings have continued.

Today I launched a website that was built in honor of Claire.  Please take the pledge to honor Claire with action.  Accept the gambit that she offered armed only with kindness and concern for a classmate.

Go into your community, into your schools and find the Karl's.   Shine her light at the Karl's that are lost.  Arm yourselves with kindness, compassion and concern like Claire did. 

We are Claire's angels now and we are her light.

Claire's light

We found out today that Claire's nickname on her Equestrian riding team is "Fluffy Little Rainbow Child".  FLRC(Flerk) as Claire pronounced it.

If you are on Twitter and Facebook and happen to read this post, please post on your timeline, please retweet with the hashtags,

#honorwithaction, #flrc, #ClaireDavis

#FLRC

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There are no words for this

Claire Davis passed away this afternoon after being shot at point blank range last Friday.

Life is short, love accordingly

As a community, once again we are left with the unthinkable, the unknowable grief of losing another precious life to an act of gun violence.

My heart goes out to Claire's family and all that knew and loved her and whose hearts are shattered tonight.

Statement from the Davis Family:

It is with unspeakable sadness that we write and say that Claire has passed away from the gunshot wound she received at Arapahoe High School on December 13, 2013. Although we have lost our precious daughter, we will always be grateful for the indelible journey she took us on over the last 17 years—we were truly blessed to be Claire’s parents. The grace, laughter and light she brought to this world will not be extinguished by her death; to the contrary, it will only get stronger.

Last week was truly a paradox in that we lost our daughter, yet we witnessed the wonderful love that exists in the world through the tremendous outpouring of support we received. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the first responders, the school resource officer, security guard and vice principal at Arapahoe High School, the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s office, and the physicians, nurses and staff at Littleton Adventist Hospital. Each played a significant role in giving Claire a chance to live, and demonstrated extreme amounts of professionalism, courage and love. Please know that we will never forget the extraordinary work you did on Claire’s behalf.

We ask that you give us time to grieve the death of our daughter by respecting our wishes for privacy.

With much loving-kindness,
The Davis Family

I never knew Claire and I know that our world is far worse now without her.

As the days turn into weeks and months and into years, we must never forget Claire.

I have to keep moving forward with doing what I can to honor Claire.

I can't tolerate another school shooting.

School violence ends with me.

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