Edmond students attend inauguration

Two Edmond students have returned from a trip to Washington, where they saw history in the making.

Savannah Steele, 15, and Marshall Clune, 16, were part of the crowd that witnessed the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States.

They were among a delegation of teens with a group called Envision, for a presidential leadership summit.

Savannah and Marshall are sophomores at Edmond North High School. When they graduate, they want to study medicine and become physicians.

In addition to the inauguration ceremonies, the students took in the sights, such as the Smithsonian Institution. They heard speakers, including Colin Powell, former military general and former secretary of state under President George W. Bush.

This is the ninth such leadership summit for high school students from across the nation. The program dates to the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

“I have never seen a crowd that big,” Marshall said of the inauguration. “And I probably never will again unless I go to another one of these. It took 61 buses to get us all there. I’m not sure we had to do this, but they made us all get up at 4 a.m. that day.”

The students didn’t get an up-close-and-personal view of the historic day. They were far back on the National Mall.

“There were big screens showing us what was happening,” Marshall said.

For the most part, Savannah said, the crowd was respectful during the solemn ceremony.

“There were a few people screaming, but almost everybody else was attentive,” she said.

The students didn’t personally witness any rioting, but they heard about it. The greatest inconvenience the students had was the day their buses were delayed because then-Vice President Joe Biden made an unplanned trip in the city. That temporarily shut down some roads.

Both students arrived home Sunday, exhausted. Marshall said it was an experience he thoroughly enjoyed.

“This is definitely something I can tell my kids about later in life,” he said.