LAWRENCE - Javier Escoto, 9, said he wishes everyone in the city could form one big search team, head to Iraq and find missing Army Spc. Alex Jimenez.

"I think we could do it. There's a lot of people in Lawrence," the Leahy School fourth-grader said. "I hope he gets found. He's a soldier who wants to protect us, and we have to support him now."

Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence is one of three soldiers believed kidnapped by terrorists after an ambush in Iraq on May 12. To honor Jimenez, hundreds of Lawrence schoolchildren - including Escoto - spent yesterday cutting out yellow construction paper ribbons bearing Jimenez's name.

Starting today, those ribbons will be hung in every window of every city school until Jimenez returns home. That's a lot of ribbons - the Leahy School alone has more than 300 windows, Principal Patricia Mariano said.

"There's been a lot of questions. They are curious to what's been happening," teacher April Fluet said. "We read about him in class."

Despite teachers' efforts, some students were still having trouble yesterday understanding what had happened.

"Where is he?" fourth-grader George Alvarado asked as his class talked about the capture.

Students at Leahy School have a special interest in the local hero. While in Lawrence, Jimenez lived just a couple of blocks away from their Erving Avenue school.

Methuen resident James Wareing, the founder of New England Caring for our Military, asked the Lawrence schools to undertake the project. Wareing's group usually sends care packages to soldiers and hangs banners on highway overpasses.

Leahy School fourth-grader Kimberly Cruz said she hopes Jimenez comes back soon.

"This is pretty cool," Cruz, 9, said. "When he comes back, he'll see what everyone's done for him."