Extreme Differences In Walkout Approaches At OLCHS, Richards

OAK LAWN, IL -- Students from Oak Lawn’s two public high schools walked, some with consequences for their civil disobedience, some without, to honor the 17 lives lost in last month’s school shooting in Parkland, FL. They filed solemnly out of their classes as part of the Nationwide School Walkout, demanding legislation for more stringent gun laws or merely to remember people their own age gunned down in the flower of their youth. The walkout lasted 17 minutes -- one minute for each life lost.

Richards High School students organized a ceremony with the cooperation of school administrators. About 800 students, a little over half of the student body, participated in the walkout. During the ceremony in the school’s football stadium, which lasted about ten minutes, students read the biographies of the 17 victims from Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School over the public address system. Then all in attendance walked the track in silence. At the end of the ceremony, students released 17 balloons in the Richards and Douglas school colors.

At neighboring Oak Lawn Community High School, about 300 students walked around Napleton Field for 17 minutes. Students were forewarned by school administrators that anyone who participated in the walkout would receive detentions for truancy and an unexcused absence. Instead of being exempt from their last final exams, seniors would be required to take finals before graduation. Some parents in attendance who cheered students outside the fenced campus told Patch that seniors who walked would not be allowed to attend prom.

Dist. 229 Supt. Dr. Michael Riordan said in an email before the scheduled walkout that OLCHS’s number one priority is student safety and security, and to maintain an “education-focused environment.”

“While we certainly support our students’ activism, we cannot sanction a walk-out,” Riordan said. “We will not organize, support, or encourage a student walk-out or protest, but will make sure that our students are safe if they attempt to do so.”

Riordan added that staff is developing instruction seminars and panel discussions to be held during the school day to help students “process and channel their frustration and activism in other ways.”

“We are also implementing an all-student Advisory lesson to assist in talking about these issues,” Riordan said.

OLCHS senior and National Honor Society member Lauren Licursi expressed disappointment that her school would not be supporting students’ First Amendment rights. She said the walkout started seven minutes before their first period class ended, and then the five-minute passing period before the next class period.

“The student handbook has stated that any student who is late more than five minutes, which all students would be back in class before the first five minutes of second period, would receive one detention,” Licursi said in an email. “Our principal has disobeyed this handbook rule by telling students that if they come in before five minutes, we would receive two detentions and a class cut.”

Licursi went on to say that when the Chicago Cubs won the World Series in 2016, students that attended the downtown victory parade were given an excused absence.

“My school can offer privileges to students who go to a parade and represent their school poorly by drinking or smoking, and provide discipline for any student who protests for 17 minutes in honor of 17 lives that were lost in the tragic event on February 14,” she said.

In an email to parents from the OLCHS principal, Dr. Jeana Lietz explained the reasons why school officials would not be supporting the school walkout.

“The goal of these protests is to bring attention to those in leadership positions about the issues of school safety and gun control,” Leitz wrote. I hope that any student would feel comfortable enough to come and talk to me, any administrator, or [the school resource officer] if they felt unsafe or that the school was not listening to their concerns.”

Leitz said there were more meaningful ways that students and adults could express their concerns “that does not disrupt our learning environment.”

“We are working with our student leadership groups as well as focus groups of students to promote options to the national walkout,” the principal said. “I have met with several groups of students so far and have asked them to think of ways to make a bigger impact and to do something that will change the minds of those who do not agree with them.”