MINNEAPOLIS – While thousands of students across Minnesota walked out of class on the one-month anniversary since the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, students at Lucy Craft Laney elementary in north Minneapolis made a silent statement of their own.
The Lucy Laney student council, comprised of fourth and fifth graders, organized a somber, reflective peace circle to remember all 17 victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Students and staff at the school often speak out against gun violence in their neighborhood, and didn’t want to turn a blind eye to the most recent mass shooting tragedy.
In a large circle on the school field, with community members, police and firefighters present, the students held 17 signs, released 17 balloons, and sent a lantern into the sky with names of the 17 victims. All of it, the idea and plea of children, who have seen and heard enough.
“These children who have been beating the drum for a while, saying something is wrong here. This is the children’s opportunity to say, we are still here. We are still saying it. Their lives are priceless, their lives mean so much,” said Mauri Friestleben, Lucy Laney’s principal. “When a child dies in a school in America, we will bleed with that school, just like we want hearts to come out to us when we grieve as well.”