ANDOVER, Mass. (AP) - Thousands of runners are participating in a 5K race to honor the memory of a Massachusetts high school teacher who was killed last October.
Runners gathered Sunday in Andover for the Step Up for Colleen 5K to remember Colleen Ritzer. She was a math teacher who was found slain behind Danvers High School.
Her family released a video thanking supporters for their support.
Her roommates and friends from Assumption College in Worcester, where she earned her teaching degree, also are participating.
Participants included students and teachers from Danvers and Amesbury and from Sanborn Elementary School in Andover that Ritzer attended as a girl.
A high school student, Philip Chism, has been charged with first-degree murder, rape and robbery. He was 14 at the time.
Chism has pleaded not guilty.