Two thousand teenagers have never been so silent as when the Olympic Heights student body, along with the faculty and staff, gathered in the school’s courtyard in a Day of Action ceremony at 10:00 this morning to commemorate the one-month anniversary of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman-Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

March 14, designated as National School Walkout Day, has seen schools across the nation choose different ways to raise awareness about the issues of school safety and the impact of gun violence while also paying honor to the memory of the 14 students and three faculty members who were killed in the Stoneman-Douglas shooting. The OH administration and Student Government Association (SGA) decided to term its “walkout” a Day of Action to place focus on the need for change and those lives lost rather than on the protest itself.

OH principal Dave Clark started the ceremony by complimenting the student body for the activism its members have taken since the Stoneman-Douglas shooting toward keeping government leaders engaged on school safety and gun violence issues. Clark then turned the program over to SGA President Carly Terkiel.

Terkiel urged students and teachers to stay active and not to give up the fight to bring change for the better regarding school safety and gun-violence. She went on to encourage those students who will be eligible to vote this November to get themselves registered to do so and to vote for those candidates that will be most effective in bringing about change.

Terkiel then read off the names of the 17 killed in the Stoneman-Douglas shooting with a single bell-toll following each name to signify “an angel getting its wings.” After the reading of names, Terkiel called for 17 seconds of silence in memory of those killed. The silence was deafening.

The OH choir then sang two moving songs, “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” and “Over the Rainbow,” that brought tears from some in the crowd. Clark then ended the ceremony by again stating his admiration for the student body’s activism and support for change. He closed by urging students to become the “agents of change.”