Hearing the feet at the pavement #sol18

At 10 am, students began trickling into the space. A steady flow of silent, somber teenagers streamed from the hallways. If you've spent any time with high school kids, you know that quiet isn't a state that comes naturally to them. Yet, here they were, walking without words, without laughter, without any of the typical teenager posturing.

For 17 minutes students stood in clusters, silently. Some raised their fists. Some sat at laptops, registering to vote. Instead of marching in the cold, the students gathered in the common area, crowded together.  Student leaders had created spaces for students to share their reflections. Along with the voter registration table, there were spaces where students could share their thoughts about gun laws, about the purpose of the walkout and write letters to members of congress. There was a memorial wall with the faces of the Parkland victims and a table where more students wrote letters to the survivors. All of these tables showed evidence of student thinking as post-it notes filled the pages and stacks of letters sat on the table waiting to be mailed.

For 17 minutes the students were silent. In their silence, they made their voices heard.