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A tragic bond: Great Mills students plan visit to students in Parkland

For months, the students from two schools that share a similar, tragic experience have been communicating through social media.

ST. MARY'S COUNTY, Md. -- The school shooting at Great Mills High School changed the lives of the students there forever.

On March 20, a 17-year old student came to the school with a gun and shot two students. Sixteen-year old Jaelynn Willey was killed. The student then turned the gun on himself and took his own life.

It was an awful day, one that students like Jaxon O'Mara will never forget. Since that day, students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland have reached out.

"It helps, it really does help to talk to somebody else who has been through this. There is no amount of therapy that can make up for a student who has been through the same thing," said O'Mara.

For months, the students from two schools that share a similar, tragic experience have been communicating through social media.

"It's our crappy little club. You can't apply to get in, you don't want to be in. But once you're in, you're in for life and there's nothing you can do about it," she said.

O'Mara started a GoFundMe page to help other students come on a trip to Parkland, in August. She has already surpassed her goal of $1,000.

The students plan to bond during their trip and will even visit the high school in Florida together.

"It's going to be a really healing experience. I can't wait to see my friends and be able to run up to them and hug them and be able to cry with them and have that face to face bonding," said O'Mara.

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