STUDENT WALKOUT: 80 rally at Wellington High School

Was National Walkout Day pointed criticism of the status quo on school safety and gun access, or was it a pointless gesture that won’t affect the overall debate?

Their protests coincided with a nationwide student protest meant to draw attention to school safety on the one-month anniversary of the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School.

Over 1,000 of Central High School’s 2,400 students walked out, as well as two-thirds of Lower Merion High School’s student body of 1,300, the Inquirer reported.

Finally, Katelyn Tsai read the names and ages of the 17 victims recounted the details of the Parkland shooting in Florida and then lead the moment of silence.

“What I do for a living is to help students find their voice, find ways to empower them, to give them resources”, said Jessica Wilkinson, the Speech and Debate teacher at Pascagoula High School. “It was lovely and I thought the girls did a good job sticking to the goal and the meaning of it”.

But they’ve also undertaken another initiative to show their support for the Stoneman Douglas community.

Wellington police Lt. Jeff Shelton agreed. Most people right now when they go home they’re going home to something hurtful.

“Universal background checks, a waiting period, raising the gun limit age to 21. those would make it harder for people to abuse their second amendment rights”, Hill said. There’s a big difference here. They bowed their heads in honour of the dead. But I’m very hopeful that when the government sees all of these voices all around the nation they start to realize how much they need to push for this. The Haven students said they had originally wanted to hold their event in the morning, but sixth graders had standardized testing. “We are NOT supporting participation in this walkout and any attempt to walkout will be considered skipping class”, said Fray in the message.

Students at the Northland school were given the option to serve a detention or to attend an administrative conference, Simon added.

Student organizers were moved and extremely appreciative by the large number of students who participated in the Walkout. Those who did participate will not face any repercussions.

“This is a big issue, the kids who were killed were our age, and a few students know people there”, said senior Dayris Beltran. “The only thing was that instructional time or that time testing; they forfeited that time to go out front”. We want to feel safe in our schools. “It was 100 percent optional for the kids”.

Police said the school was put into “secure mode” due to a threat.

“It was a training day”, he said.

We understand that our students may be feeling lots of emotions, including anxiety, fear and even anger about today’s events. “It’s important to use this Walkout as a way to remember the students at the school, and let them know we are here to fight with them and support them, and also remember the friends and teachers they lost”.