Interim University President Mark Wrighton expressed sorrow Wednesday for the victims of Tuesday’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, urging the GW community to call for change following the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade.

In a statement issued via Twitter, Wrighton said he is “sickened” and “devastated” after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School Tuesday. The tragedy marked the deadliest school shooting since 26 children and adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

Wrighton called on GW community members to “advocate for change” as part of their constant work to devise solutions to “seemingly intractable” issues like gun violence across disciplines and partisan lines. Wrighton said the GW community must mobilize its research, teaching and policy work to oppose the “public health crisis” of recent gun violence in communal areas like schools, places of worship and grocery stores.

“We can and must do something – anything – to turn the tide on gun violence,” the statement reads. 

The Uvalde mass shooting marks the 27th school shooting in the United States in 2022, bringing the total number of victims who have been killed or injured to 83, according to Education Week. The elementary school shooting follows a racist mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, where an 18-year-old gunman killed 10 Black people in a grocery store earlier this month. 

GW community members who need support in the wake of the Uvdale mass shooting can turn to the Office for Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement, Student Life at GW, the Health Center, Human Resources and Faculty Affairs for support, according to a subsequent tweet by the University.