Rockville High Students Stage Walk-Out for 'Safe Schools'

VERNON, CT — More than 400 students peacefully, orderly, and respectfully walked out of Rockville High School on Wednesday to join a national campaign to "make schools safer" from gun violence incidents.

The walkout began at 10 a.m. a month to the day after a gunman shot and killed 17 people at a high school Parkland, FL. The event lasted 17 minutes — one minute to remember each person murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The Rockville High School edition of the walkout was organized by Eric Allen, a 17-year-old senior and Juliana Ricketts, 15-year-old sophomore.

"We need change. We ... as millennials ... we're done," Allen said. said. He said he was just in eighth grade when the Sandy Hook school shootings took place in Newtown in 2012. He said what he remembers most about that day is his mom crying and saying it could have been him.

"We need change and we need to be part of this as students," he said.

Ricketts said she had composed a poem about gun violence but, after signing up for Wednesday's event, she edited it the night before and reworked it into "17 Angels."

He read the poem and then a list of the 17 liked in Florida with short bios.

"I wanted to do more than list list names," she said. "I wanted to know these people had futures. They need to be known, what they were going to do with their lives."

Another student expressed similar sentiments.

"This is a movement that is controlled by the students, for the students, and for the rest of the world," said Skylar Goold, a 16-year-old junior at Rockville High. "We are the ones who have to make the change so that others will not pay the ultimate sacrifice in vain."

Some school administrators threatened students with discipline if they walked out. Vernon Superintendent of Schools Joseph Macary said he wanted to give the students their 17 minutes and treat the event "like a field trip," and then let teachers make it part of the day's curriculum.

Ricketts said she thinks the students took that to heart and went the the event, not to cut class. She said made it a point to survey the crowd and most students eyes were front and center for the program. It began with Kailyn Kaluna singing the National Anthem and concluded with a balloon release.

School staff members and Vernon police came out to support the rally.

At Vernon Center Middle School, 85 students participated in a "low-key" walkout.

Photo Credit: Chris Dehnel