RMHS Students Walk Out To Remember Florida Shooting Victims

It started just before 10 a.m. when the names of the victims in the Feb. 14 Florida shooting were read over the Reading Memorial High School loudspeaker ... Alyssa Alhadeff, Scott Beigel, Martin Duque Anguiano, Nicholas Dworet, Aaron Feis, Jamie Guttenberg, Christopher Hixon, Luke Hoyer, Cara Loughran, Gina Montalto, Joaquin Oliver, Alaina Petty, Meadow Pollack, Helena Ramsey, Alex Schachter, Carmen Schentrup, and Peter Wang. All killed that day at Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

On Wednesday, one month after the shootings, students across the country walked out of school in a national demonstration, not only to protest national guns laws, but also to remember the victims. The discussion in Reading followed the national discussion and with Assistant Principal Mike McSweeney along with Student Council advisor Annemarie Cory involved, the Student Council formulated what RMHS could do.

Tuesday's snow storm canceled school for two days but Friday it was Reading's turn to demonstrate. Following the reading of the names, students walked out of school and gathered under the American flag in freezing temperatures and bitter winds to listen to classmates talk about the shooting and its impact.

"It was very important to honor the people who had died, not only this past shooting but all other school shootings," said Student Council president and senior Lilly Kurker. "I didn't do this for political reasons. That wasn't my main goal for this. It was just to remember those who have been affected by school violence."

As one might expect, the 20-member Council had a range of opinions on the demonstration's goal. While some focused on the victims, many focused on gun laws and the National Rifle Association.

"I don't want to go down that road," said Kurker of the NRA discussion. "For me personally that's not why I walked out today. I feel like that's a very hard topic to tackle in a school environment. For me it was definitely more of a remembrance that made me want to walk out as opposed to the NRA and guns and all of that."

Meeting after the demonstration in a Guidance Office conference room, senior Mia Lambroff, the Student Council vice-president, explained the group's thought process.

"We started with different opinions," said Lambroff. "We decided to make a compromise because we didn't want to put people in a position where they felt pressure to walk out or they felt uncomfortable if they stayed in the building. And we didn't want to make it political because we understand that people have different points of view and we need to welcome all possibilities."

"Mia and I were a little more bit more timid to do this at first," said Kurker. "I think that's the right word to say. Just because we were scared of making people feel uncomfortable politically. That's the last thing we want to do. We compromised and made it work for the student body without hopefully making anyone feel uncomfortable."

Council treasurer and senior Catherine Neville understood the importance of addressing school safety.

"There's a bunch of different approaches on how we can tackle school safety. That's one of the major points for me," said Neville. "We opened up speeches to anyone who had their view on what a solution would look like to them and our community. I think that was a lot of people's focus."

Molly Keane, the group's secretary agreed, and took a step closer to the politics of the issue.

"Our goal was to support the victims but it was also to bring awareness that half the time kids don't feel safe when were sitting in classrooms, half the time we don't feel that our government is really there for us. That's kind of my view. I just feel this was a good stepping stone to show not only the RMHS community but the Reading community and the world that although we are students we have voices."

Those voices and their message didn't end when the students walked back into RMHS after nine speakers and 25 minutes of speeches. Kurker called Friday's demonstration "the starting line" of further discussions at RMHS. The group also is discussing joining the March For Our Lives demonstration in Boston on March 24.

Photos by Bob Holmes