Students gather in the J.P. Monahan Plaza to give 17 minutes of silence in honor of the 17 Parkland victims. Over 400 students, faculty, and community members participated. (Sophie Ringold/TommieMedia)
A student holds up a poster with the name of a victim of the Parkland Shooting. Over 400 people walked to the plaza Wednesday morning to show their support. (Sophie Ringold/TommieMedia)
A student holds up a poster with the name of a Parkland school shooting victim. The participants gave 17 minutes of silence, and at each minute rang a bell. (Sophie Ringold/TommieMedia)
Elizabeth Stephenson reads a poem that she wrote called “17”, in honor of the 17 lives that were lost in the Parkland school shooting. Stephenson was one of the student organizers of the UST March For Our Lives movement. (Sophie Ringold/TommieMedia)
Danielle Wong, left, the director of the UST March For Our Lives Walkout, embraces a fellow student who thanked her for organizing the event. The walkout was arranged by St. Thomas students Danielle Wong, Sofía Leyva, Bizzy Stephenson, Kaitlyn Spratt and Tessa Schmitz, who all felt the St. Thomas community could benefit from a safe and inclusive demonstration. (Sophie Ringold/TommieMedia)
Students gather in a 17-minute long silence to remember the victims of the Florida school shooting. About 550 people showed up to the demonstration. (Sophie Ringold/TommieMedia)
Students add to the “Ideas for Action” and “Thoughts and Prayers” board in the Anderson Student Center Atrium. The participant left their classes, work, and other obligations at 10am to participate in the march. (Sophie Ringold/TommieMedia)
A student places a sticky note onto a whiteboard. The student organizers invited participants to come with any ideas they might have to encourage a positive change. (Sophie Ringold/TommieMedia)
A note on the suggestion board asks people to use their voices. (Sophie Ringold/TommieMedia)
Students read the sticky notes of fellow peers’ ideas for action. The walkout used the hashtags #StudentsStandUp and #NeverAgain. (Sophie Ringold/TommieMedia)
About 550 St. Thomas students, faculty, staff and community members gathered on J.P. Monahan Plaza Wednesday morning to participate in St. Thomas’ March For Our Lives demonstration.
The demonstration included 17 minutes of silence. During each minute, a student held a poster displaying the name of a victim of the Parkland, Florida shooting, which happened exactly one month earlier.
Junior Christian Heisler walked out of his class to participate in the demonstration.
“I thought it was really cool to see so many people come out and show their support for an issue that’s becoming more and more relevant everyday,” he said. “The fact that we could be any of those students (affected by gun violence) really hits home with a lot of people, and I think that drives a lot more people to get out and take action.”
Sophomore Bizzy Stephenson read a poem she wrote, titled 17, to all the participants to close the demonstration.
“What separates any of us from any of the 17 names we now have ringing in our ears?” she read. “I am a name on a poster. Fill in the blank … I am one incident away from being a trending hashtag or a viral photo of a victim.”
Senior Maria Stephenson, Bizzy’s sister, was proud of the poem and emotionally moved by the event.
“We have a younger sister who is 14, and a lot of those (victims) were 14, and it just really made me think how hard it is for those families,” Maria said. “Looking at those signs made me really think about how those people had lives, just like our sister.”
An almost surreal moment came as Bizzy Stephenson finished her speech, when participants looked up to see a bald eagle soar over the crowd.
Afterward, participants were invited into the Anderson Student Center and add post-it notes to two boards labeled “Thoughts and Prayers” and “Ideas for Action.”
Some ideas were simple: pray for victims, listen to others and vote. Others were very specific: don’t let people with histories of domestic assault obtain guns and use gun policies from countries with less violence.
The organizers, St. Thomas students Danielle Wong, Bizzy Stephenson, Sofía Leyva, Kaitlyn Spratt and Tessa Schmitz, said they will take participants’ ideas for action and research ways that they can be achieved, which they will post to the event’s Facebook page early next week.
Bizzy Stephenson was very happy with the turnout, and hopes the event will have a positive impact on St. Thomas.
“Hopefully people who don’t normally see themselves as progressive or protesters got something out of this,” she said.
Lauren Andrego can be reached at lauren.andrego@stthomas.edu.