Palo Alto High School’s RISE club hosted its annual Denim Day today, April 30, inviting all students to wear denim to show their support of sexual assault and harassment survivors. 

The event has been in the planning since mid-February, when discussion over the day’s proceedings began, Palo Alto High sophomore and RISE Vice President Leilani Chen said. In the end, the club settled on three primary additions to make the school day special: denim pins, a quad booth that would be set up at lunch and a blue mural on the quad.

The mural itself entailed hours of work and “a lot of teamwork,” Chen said, with herself and fellow RISE member Giacomo Resmini spending much of the recent weeks getting the administration’s approval, buying art supplies and painting the mural itself. Ultimately, Chen said creating the mural was well-worth the time — specifically for the attention it brought to Denim Day.

“Denim Day is important because it is one small way we start the conversation about supporting survivors of sexual assault and harassment in our schools but also in our communities,” Chen said. “It’s about reminding survivors that there are people who support and believe them, and it’s about telling everyone else that this is an important cause to recognize.”

Here is the day captured by our photographer.