PTA vigil in Orlando honors Parkland school victims.

With prayers, song, a reading of the names of the dead and candles that glowed and flickered in the breeze, more than 50 people gathered in downtown Orlando on Monday night to honor those killed in the Parkland school shooting last week — and to urge new measures to prevent such violence in the future.

“It will be our mission to honor them with our actions,” said Melissa Miller, president of the Orange County Council of PTA.

The event, one of more than 20 statewide sponsored by the Florida PTA, drew teachers, parents, School Board members and students to the Orange County school district’s headquarters on West Amelia Street.

The aim was to remember the dead, the 14 students and three staff members who died after being shot Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Miller said.

“The students who died deserved to be properly remembered,” said Brooke Radcliffe, 18, a senior at Orange’s Apopka High School, who helped hand out candles.

The shootings rattled students at her school, she added. “It wasn’t far away, and it wasn’t something we can distance ourselves from,” she said.

Plenty of those in attendance said they wanted to honor those killed but to see political change, too. One woman held a sign that read, “#No More.” Another wore a T-shirt that said, “Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America.”

Bill Sublette, chairman of the Orange County School Board, said, “I think I ask a question that our entire country is asking, that I certainly know all all of us are asking, but how many more? How many more students have to die?”

As the vigil ended, Valerie Radcliffe, Brooke’s mother and a county PTA vice president, told the crowd about the Florida PTA’s “rally in Tally” on Wednesday where PTA leaders will push “gun safety reforms” to state lawmakers.

“We certainly hope this is the last candlelight vigil we have to hold for our students and our educators,” she said.

“The students who died deserved to be properly remembered . ... It wasn’t far away, and it wasn’t something we can distance ourselves from.” Brooke Radcliffe, 18, a senior at Apopka High School