“Des prières pour Paris.” “Prayers for Paris.” Paris, France went into a state of emergency when utter terror struck on Friday, Nov. 13. 

First, the Stade de France, where French President François Hollande was watching a soccer match against Germany, was bombed. Second, two restaurants, Le Carillon and Le Petit Cambodge, were attacked with open fire. Third, the Stade de France was attacked again.

Afterwards, there was a shooting outside A La Bonne Bière, a shooting at the eatery La Belle Equipe and a suicide bombing at the restaurant Comptoir Voltaire, followed by the attack on the Bataclan, where the band Eagles of Death Medal was performing. Terrorists gunned down the crowd and took innocent bystanders hostage. The Stade de France was bombed a third time, and the attackers slaughtered concert attendees by the masses at the Bataclan.

Over 150 French citizens were killed. Their lives were ended by the terrorist organization ISIS.

After the Paris attacks, the country was in total disarray. President Hollande declared these terrorist attacks an “act of war.”

Authorities have named five of the seven men who perpetrated these deadly attacks: Ismael Omar Mostefai, 29; Samy Amimour, 28; Ahmad al-Mohammad, 25; Bilal Hadfi, 20; and Brahim Abdeslam, 31. All of these men took their own lives after the attacks by detonating suicide bombs on vests strapped to their bodies.

France, and the rest of the world, is in mourning for those lost in these horrendous tragedies. Snapchat put up a 24-hour geotag marking the words “Des prières pour Paris. Prayers for Paris.” Facebook has created a temporary profile filter of the French flag to spread worldwide recognition and support for the catastrophic outbreaks in Paris.

Not only is large-scale social media working to spread awareness, but Homestead’s very own French classes are as well. Led by Madame Meg Clark, French teacher, the classes have decided to sell bookmarks to raise money for relief programs in Paris and to spread awareness about the tragedies.

“Amid some grief and shock, students are especially concerned about related issues that affect our immediate community. They strongly support the message saying ‘terrorism is not a religion, nor does it represent any religion,’” Madame Clark said. “They invite further discussion on this topic and hope that the bookmarks they sell will serve to rally our school community around these issues.”

AFS students Joe Knuth, junior and AP French student, and Renata Olavarrieta Maturana, sophomore, were personally touched by these calamities. Knuth spent a semester in France during the second half of his sophomore year, and Maturana is currently an exchange student in France.

“Although tragedies occur all over the world, we still must stick together and show strength. If we become afraid, the terrorists win,” Maturana said. “I was very afraid; I could not leave my hotel room. I’m now in my town, Masion Laffitte, and I’m a lot safer.”

Many Homestead students were very nervous for her during the attacks, but she marked herself as “safe” on Facebook, notifying all of her friends and family that she was alive and okay. “My mom is very scared for me. I’m coming back to Homestead after Christmas Break,” Maturana said.

“At the moment, we are still discussing the options of which charity organization or aid organizations, such as the French Red Cross, to donate the money to, as well as other ideas to spread awareness of what happened in Paris,” Knuth said.

French students are very much looking forward to helping out Paris through their fundraiser. “What happened in France this weekend was a tragedy, and we hope to make as big of a difference as we can raising money for the French Red Cross,” Alex Lutz, senior and AP French student, said. “We hope people will donate money and become involved as well.”

Madina Jenks, senior and co-president of the French Club, also felt a sense of personal connection to the terror in France. “The tragedy has affected the French class in many ways, both on a level of intimate immediacy and on a level of general unease,” Jenks said.

For example, the pen pal of Sara Imbrie, senior and AP French student, even had a loved one who was injured in the attacks, so this tragedy has impacted her especially hard.

“This attack is just another example of misplaced hatred; this act of hatred led to the death of hundreds of peaceful Parisian people,” Jenks said.

Along with bookmarks, the French class came up with several other ideas. “We are considering passing a donation jar from class to class to collect money. Afterwards, we would reward the class who donated the most with some kind of prize,” Jenks said. “We are also considering holding a spot during one of the lunches where everyone could discuss the attacks and share their thoughts.”

With the help of outreach attempts such as those by the French students, awareness and consciousness of tragedies such as those that occurred in Paris can eventually be spread to all people.