“Let’s talk,” said Congressman Keith Ellison to the body of students that filled up the front half of the auditorium. Principal Cecilia Saddler and Social Studies teacher Robert Panning-Miller set up microphones in front of the stage, and Ellison encouraged students to come up and “talk.”

The subject was peace. Friday during 2nd hour there was an auditorium re-dedicating South High as a Peace Site. It was organized by the Human Rights Group (HRG), in order to “remind people” of South’s being a peace site, according to Panning-Miller in his speech to start off the event.

After moments of silence, a student walked up to the microphone and asked Ellison about his thoughts on Occupy Minnesota. The conversation began, and soon there was a line of students at each microphone, waiting their turn to ask Ellison a question, or to bring up a topic for discussion.

“I care about human rights,” said Ellison, “developing young people is very important to me.” Ellison emphasized the importance of youth activism for human rights in his speech and an interview. Whether the topic was immigration laws or the achievement gap, Ellison explained his views on each subject and proposed solutions to the problems within each topic to the student audience, often times earning cheers in agreement from them

The event was attended by many student groups, including the Gay-Straight Alliance, Asian Student Association, Unidos, Silver Ribbon Campaign, Green Tigers, and even the Pop Singers sang a song for the event.

Representatives from each student group went up to the podium and stated what peace means to them, including HRG president Elena Anderson.

Anderson said that HRG wanted to re-dedicate South as a peace site because none of the current students attended South when it was first dedicated in the 1980s. Anderson also said that people “don’t think about what [peace] means to them personally.” The re-dedication gave students the opportunity to think about and discuss the definition of peace and how to work towards it in their community.

“Knowledge is power,” said Anderson, and HRG is “trying to promote awareness” of Human Rights violations in order to combat them.