“Hey HEY, ho HO, gun violence has got to go! Hey HEY, ho HO, gun violence has got to go!” Parker students recited this and other chants as the student-led march for gun control proceeded down its path to one of the day’s main events: the rally on a grassy field near Lincoln Park’s South Pond.

The rally was kicked off by senior Maya Plotnick and junior Hannah Kershner singing Bill Withers’s 1972 hit “Lean on Me.” Students filled in a semi circle around the speakers, as instructed by junior senate head Sammy Kagan who was holding an orange peace sign.  Orange was the official color of the national walkout. Once the singers had finished, junior Zoe Laris-Djokovic, serving as the event’s MC, called up junior Adam Keim.

Keim gave a speech on why we should use our power to enact change. “Ask yourself why do we care,” Keim said. “Think about that. Act on it.”

Following Keim came 14 speakers, presenting speeches and poems. The Wagner siblings, Carter (a freshman) and Chloe (a senior), talked about different school shootings. “We can’t defeat hate or get rid of it,” Carter Wagner said. “But we can get rid of AR-15s.”

Women’s March Youth Empower released a statement that on March 14th, students around the country should leave their classes at 10 am and sit in solidarity and silence for 17 minutes to remember the deaths of the 17 victims. Parker did this and also extended the day to a march and rally about gun control. “We wanted to have a political, real world aspect to this,” Kagan said. “But we didn’t want it to be mandatory.”

Senior Maya Sanghvi MCed and helped organize the 17 minutes of silence. “The march and rally didn’t really have the same message as the 17 minutes of silence,” she said. “The march and rally were about gun control and gun reform, but the students’ deaths were inexplicably linked to guns,” Sanghvi said. “So if you’re going to mourn the lives of people, then do something about it. A lot of people felt that the march and rally were hijacking the day, but I don’t feel that way at all.”

Sophomores Lauryn Rauschenberger and Raven Rothkopf agreed with Sanghvi, but also felt it was respectful to agree to the terms Stoneman Douglas asked of schools throughout America. “It’s important to march,” Rauschenberger said. “Because we don’t want it to happen again,”

“Because it was Stoneman Douglas that was impacted by the shooting, I feel like it’s respectful to follow their decisions,” Rothkopf said. “It also shows that Parker is taking a stand towards this issue.”

Some of the speakers following Keim at the rally, such as senior Jalen Benjamin, talked about how Chicago has a problem with guns. Referring particularly to his own Bronzeville neighborhood, on the south side, Benjamin said, “Look at what’s happening in our backyard!”

The ceremony wrapped up in song, just the way it started. Singers Plotnick and Kershner led the gathered group in a singalong of American folk singer Woody Gurthrie’s 1940 “This Land Is Your Land.”  “Everyone singing ‘This Land is Your Land’ together was my favorite part,” Kagan said. “I think that was a really nice way to end things.”