H-F High students give tribute to victims of Parkland shooting

For 17 minutes, students at Homewood-Flossmoor High School were silent as they joined a national movement against gun violence on Wednesday, March 14.
 

It was a calming, beautiful tribute to the 17 students and staff gunned down and 17 left injured at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14 when a shooter with an AR-15 rifle opened fire. 
 

Students gathered to reflect on the Parkland victims and their families. Dozens stood in the sunshine on the senior deck at the high school’s South Building and the practice field outside the North Building. Others gathered inside in the South Building gym and the North Building fieldhouse. 
 

And students also stayed in their classrooms to write letters to their elected officials and discuss school safety with their teachers.
 

The 17 minutes of reflection also were a silent protest against members of Congress and their continued inaction to take steps to prevent gun violence.
 

In an announcement before the students walked out of class at 10 a.m., Principal Jerry Lee Anderson reminded students of the safety precautions they should take if H-F has an emergency. 
 

She also applauded students for their initiative, telling them “It’s important to show people that you’re exercising your voice” on the issues that concern them.
 

“I’m proud of H-F for implementing this day,” said senior Jasmine Franklin of Homewood. She believes her classmates took the matter “extremely seriously.”
 

Senior Raven Reeves said the desire to join the national movement came from the Principal’s Advisory Council. 
 

“We talked about how we could participate in a way that would be appropriate and acknowledge” gun violence at Parkland and elsewhere. “I think it’s pretty scary every time something like this happens,” she said.  The council also wanted students to be aware of how to protect themselves on the H-F campus.
 

Chase Gray, a senior from Flossmoor, said he and his friends have been talking about shootings the past couple months with a focus toward school violence “because it’s such a wide thing that’s been happening. Becoming so common around the world and it’s scary now.”
 

Gray said he and fellow African-American males recognize that even though crime in the Homewood-Flossmoor area is low, they are members of a demographic that, too often, is targeted.
 

“We especially talk about gun violence all around because even in Chicago it’s so frequent that someone gets shot every day,” he said.