ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Parkland students like Cameron Kasky, David Hogg, and Emma González became visible and vocal leaders of the March for Our Lives movement by navigating the conventional constraints placed on rhetorical children. The chapter analyzes a broad range of discourse from primary sources like the Parkland rhetor’s public speeches, social media messages, publicly available interviews, and televised town halls. The chapter also considers how the media coverage of the shooting and the subsequent March for Our Lives movement aligned with the Parkland rhetor’s public messaging. The chapter considers the visual rhetorical dimensions of the movement, including how the Parkland rhetors positioned the threats posed by gun violence in schools in relation to their innocent and precarious bodies through conventional public messaging at the National Mall and CNN interviews, as well as aesthetic displays of public presentation. Ultimately, the Parkland rhetors and the March for Our Lives movement offer the chance to further theorize rhetorical children, extend the two previous case studies, and better understand how rhetorical children make things matter in a way rhetorical adults cannot.
