Carson Lolley

Standing in line, students wait for the bus to arrive and take them to the metro. However, due to many road closures for the Inauguration parade, the group had to walk three miles to get to the metro. “We walked almost 13 miles the second day we were there, so we walked a half marathon,” senior Ann Rapp said. “That was definitely the most difficult part of the trip.”

Students tuned in from their smartphones or watched from Smartboard projectors as President Donald J. Trump was sworn in as America’s 45th President on Jan. 20. While most students watched from their classrooms, 93 Parkway students and teachers viewed it live in Washington, D.C.

“It was interesting to see the drastic shift in D.C. when there’s no inauguration compared to when there is,” senior Kent Robinson said. “Normally you wouldn’t see half the political stuff you see, but that week the streets were crowded with ‘Trump this’ and ‘Trump that.’”

The day of the inauguration, the 78 students and 15 chaperones woke up at 5 a.m., dressed in layers of clothing, put hotel breakfast in a paper bag and left on the bus to wait in line at the inauguration.

“I’m used to waking up at 7 a.m. for school, so when we had to wake up at 5 a.m., which is 4 a.m. St. Louis time, I had a hard time getting up,” sophomore Emily Sexton said. “I didn’t want to move or talk, I just wanted to sleep more.”

The bus ride was met by many roads blocked off for the parade. It eventually had to go through a neighborhood to get to the metro station.

“The ride on the metro was awful,” senior Alex Constantin said. “There were 90 people trying to cram into a 10 foot space, so it was about as crammed as you can possibly imagine.”

Upon walking up the street, the group saw a six mile long security line, which weaved in and out of buildings, and remained unmoving for two hours.

“I really didn’t notice how long it was. I just passed the time talking to friends and not doing much else,” K. Robinson said. “It was pretty daunting, however, walking to the end of the line. I didn’t think we’d make it in on time.”

The line they were standing in was then shut down by protesters. The group changed lines, traveling across the city to find a new one.

“It was like trying to run cross country because we had to go over obstacles, run through huge crowds of people and cross roads where police signs said not to cross,” Constantin said. “It was very chaotic and we were all running around like crazy: we just tried to follow the yellow hoodie in front of us.”

Along the way, Parkway students saw several protest groups including the Westboro Baptist Church and Dakota Pipeline Protesters.

“There were some very entertaining people here to say the least,” senior Chiron Robinson said. “There were people chanting about Trump and wearing ‘I survived eight years of Barack Obama’ shirts standing next to people holding up signs thanking [Obama] for all he’s done.”

Security was another order of business that had to be taken care of before the inauguration began. In order to pass through security, one had to show nothing was in their jacket, turn on their phones and cameras, and then allow an officer to look through bags and pouches.

“There wasn’t as much security going into the inauguration as I expected. I’m pretty sure there was more security to get into the Smithsonian than the inauguration, but the fact that there were police and army men and women everywhere made me feel really safe,” junior Maddie Grove said.

The students made it through security and into the National Mall just minutes before Vice President Mike Pence took the oath of office.

“I felt part of something bigger, regardless of if I support Trump or not. It was really cool to be there and see American flags waving everywhere I looked,” sophomore Mitchell Norman said.