Ollie Grcich used a bullhorn to rally fellow students outside Valparaiso High School after they walked out of school Wednesday to demonstrate against gun violence.

She gave opening remarks to begin the 17-minute protest, designed to honor the 17 victims in the mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla., school one month earlier. Also, 17 students gave short speeches about gun reform and reaching out to troubled teens.

Grcich joined tens of thousands of other students around the country that day who took similar public stands to show their outrage. In her closing statement, she urged VHS students to vote, to change gun laws and related laws.

“The only way we can promise change is if we put into office the ones who are ready to make a change,” she told students.

Grcich, an 18-year-old senior at the school, may not have realized it at that moment, but she was making history, not merely learning about it in a classroom.

“It was unbelievably inspiring,” she told me afterward.

Across the street from the school, 42-year-old Candace Shaw stood with other supporters at Christ Lutheran Church. They were not allowed on school property, but they wanted to encourage the teens, who faced detention for their school-time activism.

“Our whole community should be proud of these young leaders,” Shaw told me. “They are standing up and speaking up and saying that it is completely unacceptable to continue to allow this to happen.”

“I’m proud of them and their strength, how articulate they are, and the kind of composure and confidence it takes to do the things they are doing right now,” Shaw said.

Both women’s passion for this student-led movement burned brightly that day.

“We had such a good showing,” Grcich said.

“That was all them,” Shaw said, referring to the VHS students.

Their like-minded activism also landed in the middle of National Women’s History Month. The public recognition dates back to March 8, 1857, when women from various New York City factories staged a protest over working conditions.

The first Women’s Day Celebration was also in New York City, in 1909, but Congress did not establish National Women’s History Week until 1981. In 1987, Congress expanded the week to a month.

Shaw, who’s been a community activist and political strategist in Northwest Indiana for many years, looks up to other women who symbolically passed that same torch to her. Women with strong voices and unflinching determination such as Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Sophie Scholl, Grace Lee Boggs and Shirley Chisholm.

“One of my local generational mentors is the Rev. Cheryl Rivera from East Chicago,” Shaw said.

When Shaw, a mother of three, moved to this area in 2005, her son was entering kindergarten at Central Elementary School in Valparaiso. One of the first volunteer activities she got involved with was the school’s PTO.

“It was easy, because Central Elementary had this giant porch that all the parents would gather around in the morning for drop-off and in the afternoon for pickup,” she said.

One of those fellow mothers and volunteers was Grcich’s mother. They’ve kept in touch through the years.

“After the Parkland, Florida, shooting last month, it became quickly evident that there was going to be a national movement of students who were standing up for what has become a defining element of this generation,” Shaw said. “The students at VHS have been engaged in social justice issues a few times this year, and they were using social media to organize, communicate and collaborate.”

Grcich began her school’s anti-gun violence movement on social media after watching students from Parkland respond to the mass shooting.

“I was completely inspired by them,” she said.

Shaw noticed the Twitter posts and the replies from other VHS students, so she contacted Grcich.

“We met for coffee, and they’ve been organizing ever since,” Shaw said.

Grcich said her mother also told her she hoped there would be a similar student walkout at VHS.

“I brought in more people who wanted to have leadership positions. We had a meeting and put all our input into what we thought should be done,” she said.

The students who demonstrated were punished with detention, Grcich said, but they wore the controversial punishment like a badge of honor.

“We were proud of what we did and excited to get our detentions,” she said.

Another nationwide protest has been planned for April 20, the anniversary of the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School.

“When you think about it, the kids Ollie’s age, or my son’s age and younger, grew up with these horrible mass shootings,” Shaw said. “There hasn’t been a single day of her life or her peers’ lives where getting injured or worse in a mass shooting at school isn’t an option.”

“They’ve grown up with this reality, and we as adults have completely and entirely failed them along the way,” she added.

Shaw has nothing but praise and hope for Grcich and other young people who are taking a stand and, literally, making history.

“My generation, Generation X, never were slackers,” Shaw said. “Many baby boomers didn’t like what they perceived to be a nihilist perspective. Really, we have more in common with these younger generations than we do the older ones.”

“We just didn’t have the numbers before,” she said. “Now we do.”

jdavich@post-tribcom

Twitter@jdavich