Elizabeth Potter wanted to find a way to honor Meadow Pollack.
Pollack, a high school senior, was one of the 17 people who lost their lives during the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., exactly one a month ago Wednesday.
Potter – a high school senior in Concord – wanted her peers to remember that what happened in Florida was bigger than a single isolated incident.
“It could have been us,” Potter said at Concord High School, in a crowd of more than 600 people. “It could have been me.”
Students at Concord High School organized a walkout for school safety on Wednesday, in conjunction with similar walkouts around the state and across the country. At 10 a.m., students left class and proceeded to the front steps of the Christa McAuliffe Auditorium, where they stood quietly for 17 minutes, one minute for every person killed in the Florida shooting.
As each minute passed, a different member of the Concord High community read aloud the name of one victim. Every person who read a name held a sign and a pink tulip, which they placed on a wall after speaking.
Potter read Pollack’s name – fifth on the list – and held a sign that read her name. Potter felt compelled to read Pollack’s name because they were the same age and at similar places in their lives, she said afterward.
Other sign-holders said they felt they shared a connection with the person whose name they read.
“No person my age should have to ever experience something like that,” said senior Oliver Spencer, who held a sign for 17-year-old Joaquin Oliver, with whom he felt connected through their shared name.
Concord High Athletic Director Steve Mello held a sign for Chris Hixon, the athletic director at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who died trying to save students’ lives.
“You take a certain pride that someone in my profession would do something like that to help kids,” Mello said later. “Standing up there for him seemed like the right thing to do.”
Concord High football and wrestling coach Ham Munnell held a sign for Aaron Feis, Douglas’s football coach, who also died protecting students. Concord High geography teacher Bart Pospychala represented Douglas’s geography teacher, Scott Biegel.
Organizer Jonathan Weinberg, a senior at Concord High, said he began speaking with fellow students and Concord High administrators shortly after the shooting about the idea to hold a walkout to honor the Parkland victims.
Assistant Principal Tom Crumrine said he knew some students were worried that participating in the walkout could impact their college admissions decisions, and the school assured students that no one who participated peacefully would be disciplined.
“We sort of gave them our blessing, and said, ‘It’s yours to plan,’ ” he said.
Many of the students wore orange ribbons for gun violence on their jackets, hats or backpacks.
After the ceremony was over, juniors Audrey Carlson and Caitlyn Simms sat in the cafeteria catching up on homework. Carlson displayed an orange ribbon on her backpack.
Both students said it was powerful to see all the different members of the school come together – and that they were a part of a larger international movement.
“We just checked social media and saw that all around the globe there were students in Germany and England that are walking out as well,” Carlson said. “It was a nice feeling of community.”
Carlson said that most students she talked to wanted to participate in the event – but some students were skeptical of whether their actions would lead to any meaningful change.
“There’s been a lot of debate that, ‘Things aren’t going to change just by walking out of school,’ ” Carlson said. “It’s got to be a bigger social change – like by talking to people that you wouldn’t normally talk to – and just try to create a bigger sense of community, and make sure no one feels alone.”
Carlson said she agreed with the importance of reaching out to her peers more butnoted that she thinks a walkout is a great way to bring a community together to make people realize the importance of connecting.
“I’m a big fan of both walking up, and walking out,” she said.
Concord High Principal Tom Sica said he was impressed – but not surprised – by how respectful and thoughtful students had been in organizing the walkout.
“I’m proud of them,” he said.
(Leah Willingham can be reached at 369-3322, lwillingham@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @LeahMWillingham.)