By Martha Rhine
The activists wore shorts, ripped denim and high-top sneakers. Their black T-shirts were pinned with buttons and orange ribbons.
They weren’t representing the government or any specific political party. They weren’t running for office. They were high school students who organized a rally.
Saturday morning at Poynter Park, students from local high schools met to execute what they have been working toward in the days after the Parkland shooting: honoring the 17 students who lost their lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and pressuring government officials to change the status quo.
Two of the organizers, Catherine Donald and Emily Handsel, finalized preparations before the start of the rally.
Donald, 17, is an early college student at St. Petersburg College’s Tarpon Springs campus. She is confident the movement will go beyond Saturday’s march.
“This is not dying down. We’re going to keep persisting through this,” she said. “This is not the end for us and we decided that first hand.”
Handsel, a student at Palm Harbor University High School, believes the government can and should do more to protect the lives of vulnerable students.
“I would like a ban on assault rifles, and I think that we need to improve our background check system,” she said.
Handsel would also like to see laws put in place that remove guns from people with serious mental health issues and those who pose a danger to themselves and others.
Donald and Handsel agreed that school feels changed since the Douglas High School shooting. The possibility of a shooting is a real concern they grapple with constantly.
“It’s gone through every student’s head at this point,” Donald said.
The usual routines have been upended. “Fire drills make me nervous,” Handsel said. “I could see it happening.”
They both agreed it could happen anywhere.
The weeks after the shooting have been fraught with threats to local schools, but most have been hoaxes. Central High School in Hernando County received six bomb threats in four days until police arrested the 17-year-old student they believe to be responsible.
Despite these setbacks, students like Donald and Handsel feel optimistic.
“Educating them is the most important part. I don’t blame them, they’re growing up sheltered from all these things,” Donald said. “We need to educate the youth because they are the next generation, they’re going to be running for office, they’re going to be voting.”
The rally was the result of collaborative work between students at several local high schools, brought together by Madison Vogel, a junior at Osceola Fundamental High School.
According to Donald and Handsel, Vogel reached out on Twitter to students who had organized walkouts at their individual schools, and together they started the nonprofit We The Students and planned a rally.
The enthusiasm of high school students around the country has been energizing groups like Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety who have been waiting for a turning point in Florida, which is a notoriously gun-friendly state.
In the end, getting people to register to vote is the most important component.
“I just (registered to vote) actually last weekend. I was so excited,” Donald said.
“I’m actually heading to the (registration table) table right now to pre-register but I intend to register by the end of the day,” a visibly excited Handsel said as Donald cheered her on.
Seventeen white chairs sat in a row along the waterfront at Poynter Park, each with an individual balloon tied to the back and a single red flower on the seat that gently wilted from the sun. Donald thought that was acceptable and somehow symbolic.
The stage was set for their moment, and as the morning unfolded the student organizers took turns at the podiums reading poems and speeches they had written in honor of the lives lost.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, over 1,500 people showed up to hear them.
The teens stood together on the stage holding hands as a song written by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas students played through the speakers.
Then everyone marched.
Photos courtesy of Martha Rhine
