Peter Wang
NEW YORK — U.S. Military Academy officials say they have posthumously offered admission to a 15-year-old last seen holding open a door for other students during February’s school shooting in Florida.
West Point officials said on Feb. 20 that the Class of 2025 admission offer was an appropriate honor for Peter Wang, a “brave young man” whose lifetime goal was to attend the storied academy north of New York City.
Wang was a freshman member of the Junior ROTC program at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and reportedly was wearing his gray ROTC shirt when he was killed.
Wang was buried in uniform, at his family’s request, and the Junior ROTC Heroism Medal was on his uniform, said Lt. Col. Christopher Belcher, spokesman for Army Cadet Command. A second medal was given to the family as a keepsake.
West Point rarely offers posthumous admissions. Potential candidates’ actions must exemplify the academy’s tenets of duty, honor and country.
A White House petition for Wang to receive a full-honors military burial was created on Feb. 16, and as of Feb. 20, it had more than 64,000 of the 100,000 signatures needed to be viewed by the White House.