Signs for change: Students Demand Action rally

Isabella Gaines (right), freshman at Webster Groves High, waits on the steps before the march begins. While Webster Groves High didn’t have a walkout, nine other peers joined her downtown. “I think this shows that we all care,” Gaines said. “We aren’t going to sit idly by while school shootings occur. We care and we want this to end. The politicians aren’t doing their job, so we’re going to do it.”

Kevin Fitzgerald is running for state representative in the 89th district. He is a supporter of the Moms Demand Action and the Students Demand Action movements. “I think it’s a wonderful thing that the young people are doing, and High School kids especially,” Fitzgerald said. “So I’m here to support you all the best I can.”

Sophia Hultberg, sophomore at MHS, demonstrates at the rally before demonstrators marched two laps around the building.

Evan Del Carmen, senior at MHS, marches around the block with other demonstrators. “The NRA is a terrorist organization that funds the slaughter of children and I will not stand for that, and neither should our politicians,” Del Carmen said. Adrianna Arnold, senior at MHS, marches on the corner of 9th and Locust. “I’m just tired of coming to school everyday, thinking that I’m in danger, and that I might turn a corner and there might be someone there to shoot me,” Arnold said. “I know that sounds really harsh, but that is a real fear that I have in my head every single day and it would be really great if I didn’t have those thoughts everyday so I could actually focus on my education.”

Zack Lesmeister, senior at MHS, performed his poem “Minutes after they turned Pulse Nightclub into an art gallery” in honor of the 2016 shooting. “Revolution and change starts with the youth, and empowering the youth,” Lesmeister said. “Through events like these, we’re able to not only express our activism and share our thoughts and opinions, but also come together as a community.

Tiffany Yoon, junior at MHS, speaks about gun violence and her experience as an immigrant. “When I was writing my speech I was trying to look at gun violence as less of a political issue and more of a humanity crisis,” Yoon said.

Alex Madaras, sophomore at MHS, said she stands in solidarity with victims of gun violence and fights for increased gun legislation. Madaras was one of the speakers at the rally and she performed what she called a, “slam poem and speech hybrid.”

Demonstrators participate in a 13 minute “Die in” in remembrance of the victims of the Columbine and Parkland shootings. Participants lay on the ground while SDA representatives read the names of the victims outloud.