National Walkout Day: What It Will Look Like In Waltham

WALTHAM, MA — As Waltham High School students consider whether they'll take part in a nationwide call to action in remembrance of the victims of the Parkland shooting on March 14, Waltham High School Principal Gregory A. DeMeo said Friday the high school plans to use the day as a teaching moment.

"We should capitalize on lessons students can learn from the experience," said DeMeo in the letter sent out to the community on the superintendent's letterhead and forwarded to the Patch.

High school students throughout the Greater Boston area are planning walkouts and heading up letter-writing campaigns in the hopes that it will lead to policy changes that prevent future school shootings. As March 14 approaches some school administrations are prepping to supervise student-led walkouts outside the safety of the school building and some are setting up alternative school assemblies in an effort to keep students safe but let them excercize their right to protest. Across the country school districts are also working out whether they should punish students for leaving class.

But the Waltham administration put together a game plan and a program ahead of the March 14 protest.

School officials said they've worked it out so that History teachers will give students information on how to write letters to their state and National legislators but in a "non-partisan way."

Lest anyone think the school is getting into the advocacy business:

"Any related political action will be student-driven, not adult-driven," said DeMeo in the letter.

At 10 a.m., students can choose to leave class, head to the gym for 17 minutes, where students will read off the names of the 17 people who were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, and they will hold a moment of silence for them.

After the 17 minutes is up, everyone heads back to class.

Officials said when thinking about the National Walk Out Day they had two things in mind in addition to the using the moment as a lesson: safety of the students and a potentially positive outcome.

"This program provides our students who are passionate about this cause with an opportunity to show their support in a safe and productive manner," said DeMeo.

As for whether or not there will be repercussions for any students who choose to protest in a different way?

"Many schools in the area are running school events and we're hoping that students will take advantage of participating in the program that has been planned. Initial feedback from students is positive, but we will continue to review what we hear over the next several days to ensure the safety of all students and staff," DeMeo said in an email to Patch.

Another approach in Waltham

Students at Gann Academy on Forest Street are planning to be part of the #Enough National School Walkout March 14, at 10 a.m., too. But the way it's unfolding is looking a bit different.

Head of Gann Academy Rabbi Marc Baker said as students there were planning their own activism he wasn't as involved in the details so much.

"We're really working with kids to support their leadership. I know our students are in the process of planning and mobilizing," he said.

But the administration was working out a way to figure out how to support them, while holding boundaries. On the one hand, he said, he preferred that students stay in class, but still, he didn't think they would go so far as to create repercussions if students felt the need to protest.

"It's a dance. We want to support their leadership and activism," he said.

Some students have come to ask for permission to protest, but he said he's encouranged them not to, not to coordinate with the administration.

"We're trying to help them see what activism is. This is what it is to help cultivate student leadership," he said.

It's unusual because it requires the adults put aside what they want.

"It's a fascinating place to be. This is real world education," he said, noting the school wants students to understand their actions have consequences, but events outside of school do, too, and there's a gap sometimes and it's in their hands to help close that gap.

"This is what great moral education, civic education is all about. I wish we didn't have to use this as the experiment. But we're trying to treat this in an excersie of what great education is supposed to be," he said.

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Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch