CCSD Students Pay Tribute To Parkland Shooting Victims

WOODSTOCK, GA — Students in the Cherokee County School District used the time designated for the March 14 nationally-coordinated student walkout protest to pay their respects to the 17 victims killed in the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Cherokee school district spokesperson Barbara Jacoby said all six high schools hosted student-led memorial services at their stadiums or flagpoles. Those students engaged in a moment of silence, with some services including comments from student government leaders. Other memorials included balloon releases and videos paying tribute to the shooting victims. The events, Jacoby said, were closed to the public, including the media.

The county's middle school students weren't left out of the activities, as they also held a 17-second moment of silence at 10 a.m. and organized activities throughout the day "to celebrate kindness to others" (For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here).

According to CCSD, here are rough estimates of how many students participated in events at their high schools:

• Cherokee: 1,600 students
• Creekview: 350 students
• Etowah: 500-600 students
• River Ridge: 500 students
• Sequoyah: 400-500 students
• Woodstock: 200-300 students

High school events, which were held from 10 a.m. to 10:17 a.m., were optional and monitored by administrators and Cherokee County School District police officers. Each schools' bell schedule was also changed to extend the homeroom period for students who did not want to participate in the memorials, Jacoby said.

Small groups of students at Dean Rusk, E.T. Booth, Freedom and Mill Creek middle schools chose to walk to central locations, such as a courtyard or the cafeteria, for a brief moment of observance there. Those actions were also observed by administrators, with no disruption or disciplinary issues, Jacoby added.

"Today’s activities occurred without disruption or need for disciplinary action," she added. "We appreciate how respectful our students were in their student-led memorial observances, as they paid tribute to the Parkland victims and expressed support for their families and community. We’re grateful for the service of our CCSD School Police Department and our community law enforcement agency partners in ensuring students felt safe and secure during their observances."

In Cobb County, students who attempted a walkout to protest gun violence on Wednesday met resistance from school officials who had said they wouldn't support the demonstrations. Reports surfaced that school doors were locked and some schools experienced heavy security presence.

In Fulton County, students in several schools held protests as well as memorials to call for stricter gun laws and to pay tribute to the Parkland victims. Students in Atlanta, Douglas County as well as Decatur all took part in walkouts to show solidarity with the national efforts.

Nationally, in front of the White House, in the streets of Harlem and, most notably, at a football field in Florida, thousands of students across the country are participating in the National School Walkout memorial protests, which come a month to the day after a gunman shot and killed 17 people at a Parkland, Florida, high school.

Emboldened by a growing protest movement, the students are leaving their classrooms for 17 minutes — one minute to remember each person murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — beginning at 10 a.m. in their local time zones for the National Student Walkout.

In Harlem, the students are marching to Borough President Gale Brewer's northern Manhattan district office. Brewer will then accompany the students to the Harlem State Office Building on West 125th Street where they will protest congress' inaction on gun violence.

In Parkland, Florida, students streamed past a school fence that has been turned into a memorial for the 17 people killed on Feb. 14. They chanted "MSD" — for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — then gathered in a massive circle to sing a song written by several students after the shooting.

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Patch editors Doug Gross, John Barker and Beth Dalbey contributed to this article.

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