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Student Walkouts Protest Gun Violence, Support Parkland: Video

U.S. students walked of classrooms for 17 minutes — a minute for each person killed at Florida high school — to protest gun violence.

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Across America Wednesday, tens of thousands of students streamed out of their classrooms in protest, some marching to the steps of the U.S. Capitol, others onto the streets of Harlem and, notably, others to a football field in Parkland, Florida, outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a month ago to the day, a gunman shot and killed 17 people. Many risked suspension to speak both of their hope — that Congress will hear their voices and enact stronger gun laws — and their fear — that their schools will be the next target.

Emboldened by a growing protest movement, the students taking part in the ENOUGH National School Walkout left their classrooms for 17 minutes — one minute to remember each person killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Growing up in the post-Columbine era — the time after the 1999 school massacre in Denver — these students have never lived in a time when there weren't mass school shootings that cut down the lives of children their age and younger.

Many of those participating in the peaceful protests Wednesday weren't much older in 2012 than the 20 6- and 7-year-olds who were among 26 people murdered that year in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

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An 11-year-old who braved the snow in Massachusetts spoke for many.

"I want us to be noticed," he said.

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Indeed, these students, growing up at a time when school shootings have become so frequent that many in America have become numb to them, have had "enough."

Nowhere in the country were walkouts more poignant than in Parkland, where students said they felt the strength of America at their backs.

"Today is special," Stoneman Douglas freshman Priyank Rampat, 15, told Patch. "I think it's just amazing. It's what's keeping us going."

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.

"You're not going to knock us down. We'll get back up again," the song went. "Together we have the power to change the world around us."

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a gunman killed 17 students and staff, said they felt the strength of America standing behind them in National School Walkout rallies held across the country. Photo by Paul Scicchitano/Patch

LIVE COVERAGE ACROSS PATCH

Boston, Massachusetts


Chicago, Illinois


Watch Live: Chicago Student Take Part In National Walkout

Shorewood, Wisconsin

Watch: Wisconsin High School Kids Prepare To Walk Out

Wednesday's protests were a long time coming, Citlalli Nuñez told the gathering of students at his school in Hillsboro, Oregon.

"Our generation has grown up in a state where we are to go through lockdown drills in case of an intruder entering the school campus at any point in time. Students in the United States fear school shootings more than they fear a natural disaster," Nuñez said through a megaphone after she and about 200 other students at Hillsboro High School walked out of their classrooms. "We shouldn't have to feel dread when the intercom kicks on unexpectedly. We are walking out because practicing how to barricade doors and hide under desks does not create a supportive learning environment. We are walking out because enough is enough."

A student in Decatur, Georgia, told Patch the protests speak to students' growing fear.

"We no longer feel safe in our schools," said the student, who helped organize the walkout, as her classmates crowded around. Some carried signs bearing slogans like "We Love Parkland" and "Who's Next?"

In Harlem, the students marched to Borough President Gale Brewer's northern Manhattan district office. Brewer then accompanied them to the Harlem State Office Building on West 125th Street where they protested Congress' inaction on gun violence.

Among students' demands are stricter gun laws, such as those that would have prevented Nikolas Cruz from buying the AR-15 rifle he is accused of using in the Parkland shooting. They also are calling for a raise in the minimum age to buy a gun and stricter background checks.

At Broomfield High School in Colorado, students had specific demands for their state lawmakers, including a ban on assault rifles, raising the minimum purchase age from 18 to 21 and a bump stock ban. They also want increased security.

"We'd like an SRO officer in every school, and a mental health professional in every school,"said Riley Judd, a junior who organized the walkout.

17 MINUTES FOR CHANGE

One of the largest local walkouts was at South Brunswick High School in New Jersey, where 2,000 students squeezed into bleachers and spilled onto a running track.

About 2,000 students at South Brunswick High School took part in the march. (Photo courtesy of the school district)

Student Jenna Cohen, one of the teens who organized the event, said the high school has developed a #WhatsYour17 character-building initiative "challenging everyone to make our community better."

The idea is: "What 17 things can each of us do to enhance life for others in our society?" she said.

In Oak Forest, Illinois, around 300 to 400 students held signs — some with the slogan "Never Again" on them — as they formed a "17" in honor of the victims of the Feb. 14 massacre on the school's football field.

"Almost all of the organizers are in marching band, so they know the field pretty well," said Amy Oberhart, a 16-year-old sophomore who worked with seven other Oak Forest students to organize the local walkout. "At the beginning of the school year, we did spelled 'OFHS' and 'Bengals,' so we wanted to incorporate that idea again."

Hundreds of Oak Forest High School students participated in a national school walkout Wednesday, March 14, to honor the victims of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting. Photo courtesy of Amy Oberhart

In Chicago Heights, Illinois, the school administration at Bloom High School embraced students who wanted to protest, including senior Jorge Vasquez, who said in a speech that violence is a sad sign of the times students live in, whether it occurs in school or out of it. The school bell rang 17 times after he made his remarks.

"Violence continues to be a plight that we live in," Vasquez said. "Yes, school shootings and the losses they bring are heartbreaking, however, any life loss to violence is horrific."

In New Jersey, hundreds of South Brunswick students walked out of class and to the Vikings football field, in a ceremony teachers are calling "exceptionally powerful and moving." The students placed 17 empty desks in the center of the football field to symbolize the 17 students and staff killed in the Parkland shooting.

Students in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia marched to the U.S. Capitol and raised their voices in protest.

Students from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia swarmed the U.S. Capitol to protest gun violence. Photo by Cameron Luttrell/Patch
Future voters marched to a rally at the U.S. Capitol. Photo by Cameron Luttrell/Patch
A student's sign at a massive rally at the U.S. Capitol speaks to students' growing fear about school shootings. Photo by Cameron Luttrell/Patch

SOME STUDENTS RISKED SUSPENSION

School districts have grappled with how to handle the protests. Some have encouraged it, but others threatened participating students with suspension. Some schools are treating the protest as a teaching moment and will ask students to write essays or do other projects surrounding the experience.

In some cases, students walked out of school in defiance of policies subjecting them to disciplinary action, including in the Council Rock School District in Newtown, Pennsylvania. The Bucks County school district, which at first supported the effort, changed its stance due to safety issues, administrators said. They have set up areas inside the building for students to participate in a class walkout, which the superintendent now says must be "non-political."

At least two New Jersey school districts are threatening suspensions.

Woodbridge High principal Glenn Lottmann said in a letter provided to Patch that "any student who chooses to leave school grounds will be subject to disciplinary action, which includes up to two days out of school suspension."

Sayerville students face similar action, and the American Civil Liberties Union called it the most punitive response by any school district in the state.

The story was similar in Maryland.

"Leaving school property can disrupt instruction for other students and pose a significant safety risk, especially in light of the increase in school threats," Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jack R. Smith said in a statement. "MCPS does not have the staff or resources to ensure students are safe during the school day when they are not on a school campus."

A TEACHABLE MOMENT

But in other schools, the opposite was true.

Atlanta Public Schools worked with its students to make the protests meaningful.

"As the birthplace and school district of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Atlanta Public Schools takes seriously our responsibility to prepare our students to succeed beyond high school and to help them become well-rounded individuals equipped with the knowledge and tools necessary for actively engaging in society," APS Superintendent Meria Carstarphen wrote recently in a blog post. "And, as someone who was born and raised in Selma, Alabama, I have a personal appreciation and respect for the impact civic engagement can have on social change.

In the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado, Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said in a letter to parents that the protest is a valuable lesson in critical thinking skills.

Kate Finman, a senior at San Juan Hills High School who helped organize a walkout at her school in California, told Patch that people differ wildly on arming teachers, one of the more contentious suggestions in the wake of the shooting, "we all agree on one thing: something has to change."

In Wisconsin, a mom of three organized a walkout in Waukesha High School told Patch the students "may end up being the ones who stop the next mass shooting from happening."

"None of the of the young adults I've spoken to take this issue lightly," Tahra Loy said, "or as an excuse to disrupt the school day and 'skip' class."

The protests came 10 days before the March For Our Lives protest in Washington, D.C., and several cities on March 24. About 730 of those events are planned worldwide.

MORE WALKOUT COVERAGE ON PATCH

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This story includes field reports from across the Patch network.

From one coast to the other, U.S. students walked out of their classrooms for 17 minutes to both protest gun violence and show support for the 17 people killed a month ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. (Photo by Paul Scicchitano/Patch)

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