Thursday was another one of those days when the emphasis was on the first syllable at GOODrell Middle School.
A series of special events was staged in support of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School community in Parkland, Florida, site of the latest American school shooting massacre.
T-shirts are on sale and an afterschool dance was organized, with the proceeds going to the Broward County (FL) Education Foundation. Students also designed themed shoes throughout the day.
But first, another Meet Me at the Pole get together as students arrived for classes in the blush of a full-scale sunrise. PE instructor John Walling placed 17 pennies at the base of the flagpole in the campus front yard, one for each of the precious lives so cheaply and tragically lost at Stoneman Douglas.
Walling invited Pastor Jason Grow from Bondurant to offer an invocation on the theme for the day of Stomp Out Hate and Grow likened the students to kindling that can spark a fire of kindness.
His point about the power of students to be catalysts for positive change was well-taken. Students returned to classes just yesterday at Stoneman Douglas for the first time since the mayhem at their school. Besides attending funerals, they’ve rechanneled their grief into civic activism, advocating for legislative remedies to America’s epidemic of gun violence.
They have tapped into wellsprings of support among their peers across the country, including here in Des Moines.
On the other side of town, Rider Time is a 45-minute block that’s built into the daily schedule at Roosevelt High School to accommodate everything from busing logistics between the home campus and Central Campus/Academy to study time between classes. Thursday morning, it was more than enough time for a well-organized and peaceful protest on the school’s front porch designed to echo the concerns voiced by the student leaders in Florida and across the country.
There was a live demonstration of the ways and means of calling congressional representatives to advocate for reform of gun laws and mental health systems.
There was spoken word poetry that rang out like a eulogy for the Parkland victims.
And lastly, there was a stirring rendition by Roosevelt’s Bridges2Harmony gospel choir of a song inspired by the slaying of nine worshipers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015:
“All Good People”
There are dogs in the yard, howling at the moon
There are sinners like me our judgment’s coming soon
And I stand at the bottom of this dark and lonely well
Saying “please give me answers so I might escape Hell”
I watched from my window as they gunned down unarmed men
Tried to say it’s not my problem: couldn’t happen to my friends
But the truth is they’re my brothers, and they’re my countrymen
And if we lose our better angels, we won’t get them back again
Come on and raise your voice above the raging seas
We can’t hold our breath forever when our brothers cannot breathe
Come on and raise your voice above the raging seas
We can’t hold our breath forever when our brothers cannot breathe
All good people, won’t you come around?
Won’t you come around?
The event at Roosevelt Thursday was on the heels of “sign-ins” at both Roosevelt and East last week when students and staff had opportunities to write messages of support on big banners since sent to their “brothers” and “countrymen” in Florida.
At Goodrell first thing in the morning and later at Roosevelt, too, there was no disruption of the regular schedule of classes. But that didn’t stop DMPS students from rallying together to share their grief for their peers in Florida and their demand for action from elected officials.
Time will tell if it will lead to a change in the nation’s status quo.
