French National Honor Society creates Paris tribute board

Eleanor Xiao

Students write messages for those affected by the various attacks in Paris, Beirut and Baghdad. FNHS posted these messages on its Tribute Board in Main.

by Eleanor Xiao, TALON Business Manager

The French National Honor Society (FNHS) created a tribute board for those affected by the onslaught of the terrorist attacks which occurred in Paris, Beirut and Baghdad last Thursday and Friday.

FNHS hosted a preparation session on Tuesday in which they cut out white, red, green and blue paper hearts in. Today, they hosted a booth after school and offered the hearts to students to write messages of support to those affected by the attacks. These cutouts will be posted on the FNHS board in Main Hall.

Senior Samali Sahoo, who is the president of FNHS, expressed how the attacks in Paris personally affected her.

“The Paris and Beirut attacks definitely changed my perception on ISIS and the controversy surrounding it as a whole,” Samali said. “I think in terms of FNHS, we learn a lot about cultural aspects in AP and there’s actually like a huge cultural divide amongst Arab people in France and this whole multiculturalism problem, so there’s already a divide. The bad part about it is that yes, there is terrorism, which is bad, but then there’s also that other part in which you don’t really want to be in a country in which the societies are divided.”

As soon as the news about the terrorist attacks circulated, the club immediately started planning the event to bring awareness into the Harker community.

“It was very important to us to make sure this would be addressed in the school because this is such an important issue,” junior Andrew Rule, the Rédacteur-En-Chef (Editor-In-Chief) of FNHS said. “This is such a huge tragedy in not just France but also Baghdad and Beirut, and since we are sort of representatives of the French language and by extension the French nation at Harker, we wanted to make sure this is addressed. This is our way of doing that.”

Many students stopped by the booth to express their sympathy towards the recent tragedies.

“What’s happening in France is devastating and for families being affected by it,” Neeraj Aggarwal (10) said. “It’s hard, and I wanted to show my support.”

The hearts are currently posted on the FNHS wall in Main, and the organization will be hanging up more tomorrow.