Northwest suburban students sign banner supporting Parkland

Two Northwest suburban high school districts are sending a token of support to students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Thousands of students have been signing their names to an 18-foot-long banner circulating through the schools of Northwest Suburban High School District 214 and Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211.

The banner, which reads "Northwest Suburban Illinois High Schools Stand with Parkland," has some 20,000 signatures so far - so many that students have now begun to sign the back of it.

"I would tell them we have their backs no matter what," said Mitchell Rutledge, 17, a Prospect High School junior who oversaw the banner signings in the school's commons area Tuesday. "They're not alone."

The idea for the banner started two weeks ago at Elk Grove High School, which already was sending a smaller banner after the Feb. 14 school shootings that killed 17. Elk Grove librarian Dawn Ferencz and a student civic action club led the initial banner-signing campaign, which resulted in about 1,000 signatures.

That prompted social science teacher Jim Arey to expand the effort to schools in both District 214 and District 211. Arey is vice president of community engagement for Northwest Suburban Teachers Union Local 1211, which represents teachers in both districts.

The banner has made its way from school to school, with stops this week at Prospect in Mount Prospect and Hersey in Arlington Heights, before returning to Elk Grove Thursday.

Arey said the Florida high school has been on the receiving end of many other tokens of support, so he's not sure if the banners will be on display there.

"It's a symbol, either way," Arey said.

The banner signing comes as students in both school districts plan to join a national walkout at 10 a.m. today to call for tighter gun control measures.

Rutledge, who is helping organize the walkout at Prospect, welcomed students of all political views to sign the banner on Tuesday.

"Whether we're Republican, Democratic, independent or split, whether we have different views on gun control or no gun control, I think that we're all Americans," Rutledge said. "We need to see the value of people and stand behind our fellow Americans. There's so much separation right now. I think this is a good way to show the gesture of connection that we need to get back to sometime soon."