Bernards Students To Walkout, Bedminster Students To Stay Inside

BERNARDSVILLE/BEDMINSTER NJ — Students at Bernards High School and Middle School and Bedminster Schools will participate in the nationwide walkout Wednesday in protest of recent gun violence in schools and to call for stricter firearm laws in two very different ways.

Bernards students will particpate in the 17-minute walkout as part of one of hundreds that will be held across the United States spearheaded by the Enough National School Walkout of the Women's March Youth EMPOWER nonprofit. The length of time is done in memory of the 17 victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida earlier this year. (See Related: Florida Shooting Victim, 14, Lived In NJ, 'Loved, Well-Respected')

Bedminster students however will also participate but from inside.

"To ensure student safety and have supervision, I have been working together with our student council officers to devise a safer version of a walkout and one that will still give students the opportunity to have a voice, which is something that is extremely important to me," said Bedminster Principal Corby Swan.

Students will be staying inside and will use the 17 minutes to take a moment of silence, write cards, letters, and posters etc. for the Parkland High School community or anyone else with whom the students want to communicate.

"I explained to students in grades 5 to 8 that participation is voluntary. I also explained that I am in no way telling them which side to be on regarding the issue of gun control. Any student who is in support of gun control is encouraged to wear the color orange but they do not have to do so. Students have been told that if they walk out of the school, they will be disciplined due to cutting class," Swan said.

Somerset Hills School District on the other hand will not punish students for walking out.

"The Somerset Hills School District does not encourage or discourage the organized student walkout; students who decide to participate will not be prevented from doing so, nor will they receive disciplinary consequences for their participation," Bernardsville Middle School Principal Gretchen Dempsey said in a letter to parents.

Students who decide to participate will be supervised by staff until they return to the building, and Bernardsville Police Department is working with school administrators to ensure student safety until the event concludes.

The organization said the 10 a.m. walkouts are to "protest Congress' inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods." Other walkouts will occur in Bridgewater, Basking Ridge, Hillsborough, Watchung Hills and throughout New Jersey.

Residents are showing they support local students by displaying orange ribbons on their properties.

Photo: Students participate in a protest against gun violence Feb. 21 outside the White House in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of students from a number of Maryland and DC schools walked out of their classrooms and made a trip to the U.S. Capitol and the White House to call for gun legislation, one week after 17 were killed in the latest mass school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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