Pleasant Valley Middle School students stood in the spotlight to perform their best works of written art recently for the annual “Poetry Shout!”

Although being young, the 24 student poets didn’t shy away from grown-up topics. Their poems encompassed topics, such as school shootings, perfectionism, gender identity, immigration and environmentalism.

Alexandria Gibb, Ph.D., a teacher of gifted students and organizer of the event, said, “Even though I know how amazing our students are, and it shouldn’t surprise me, it still always does surprise me that students are willing to put their emotions on full display, that they are brave enough to stand in front of a crowd and speak their truths, and that they are doing it — mostly — just for the love of creating.”

Student Mariah Jones said she wrote about school shootings because the topic spoke to her heart.

“It was the only thing I could think about,” she said. “I really think this topic needs more awareness on it, because school shootings happen all around the world. And there’s a lot of bad school shootings.”

Jones said she is not concerned about shootings in her school, though. “Luckily this school, we’ll probably never have a school shooting, because it has a lot protection.”

Sixth-grader Mariah Oberreiter chose growing up as her topic.

“I did my topic about how growing up is hard if you’re someone young and you’re not ready yet.”

In her poem titled “I’m Not Ready Yet,” she talks about being seeing adulthood coming up, but still feeling a part of her childhood. A line from her poem reads, “Just because I’m almost there doesn’t mean I am.”

Keyli Cuautla wrote about immigration in her poem “RED, White and Blue,” and the raids being carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“My poem is about immigrants, and about how ICE tore apart families. It’s very upsetting,” Cuautla said.

She said she knows there are people who agree with what ICE is doing. She thinks they just don’t understand what it’s like for these people.

“They haven’t felt that pain yet. As we speak, families are getting torn apart,” Cuautla said.

“I was absolutely floored by Keyli C’s performance of ‘RED, White and Blue.’ The emotion she projected and the truth that she spoke is well beyond her years,” Gibb said. “But, to be honest, they all impressed me. Emma S’s poems had incredible imagery and depth to them. I could honestly comment on each one of the poems!”

Emma Stenger’s poems were titled “The Changing Tide” and “The Space Between.”

“They’re about my journey in gender,” she said.

In one line of the poem “The Changing Tide,” Stenger writes, “The labels feel like clothes too tight,” and near the end of the poem says, “I keep my secret safe with me, until the day I can truly be free.”

Kileyann Witt said she wrote about how not everyone has someone they can talk to about their feelings. Stenger agreed and added, “Don’t be afraid to talk to your (school) counselor. They will listen and they won’t judge.”

The topics of the poems were broken into five categories: Human Connections, The World Around Us, Tough Stuff, The School of Perfectionism, and The Dichotomy of America. In all, there were 29 poems written by the students read and two written by the teachers who won the America 250 poetry contest middle school and high school categories.

The contest was a district-wide event involving the teachers. Taylor Lindsey, Ph.D., won in the high school category, with her poem titled “The Iron Arch of the Keystone.” And Nicole Composto won in the middle school category, with her poem titled “Let Freedom Ring.”

Gibb said, “It was great to have two of the teachers who won an America 250 poetry contest that was held within our school district come and read their poems.”

The other student poets included: Simra Ali, Ariya Barbuto, Norah Bird, Kevin Blomberg, Declan Brown, Sophia Ciecierski, Jasper Finn, Zoey Jhingoerie, Audrey Landis, Abigail Lowell, Natalie Mackowiak, Emma Miksch, Madisyn Mozelesky, Lucie Nikoden, Amara Prashad, Lily Sullivan, Madison Temos, Lila Triola and Mehan Worden.

And the event also included the middle school band, which performed at the opening of the program and between poetry sets. The band members included: Layla Alexander, Danielle Binkley, Declan Brown, Doris Chen, Victor Chheng, Shea Cleminson, Kai Dempster, Aurora DeVatt, Jasper Finn, Allie Fors, Alex Frost, Gage Graff, Abby Lowell, Kohlby Polchik, Anna Smith, Isaiah Snyder, Lilly Sullivan, Conner Turley and Cameron Wood.