Chicago Students Stand In Defiance of Trump & NRA, Walk Out of Classes

We also will participate in the March for Our Lives on March 24 to focus attention on school safety and show those who oppose stricter gun control laws that we, among many other students nationwide, are ready to take a firm stand for overdue change.

Across the nation, students protested gun violence on National School Walkout Day-the one month anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting in Parkland, Florida. The Bentonville School Board, however, decided Monday any student who joined the walkout would be disciplined per school policy, meaning they would be marked absent and assigned detention.

Student leaders ended the march by standing in front of their peers.

A female student was fatally shot at Huffman High School in Birmingham, Alabama, earlier this month, so dozens of students walked outside and encircled a flagpole, which was still at half-staff in memory of 17-year-old Courtlin Arrington.

“They wanted to do something that day”.

But some students said they wouldn’t settle for silence.

“I couldn’t even say anything because of how wonderful it was”, said student leader, 14-year-old Simone Gelety. It also allows the arming of some school employees, although teachers are mostly excluded. I’m not saying that we should take guns away. Organized by the teens, the walkouts varied, some taking on more of a somber, tributary tone while others were rallying cries for gun reform and increased school safety.

About 530 students participated in walkouts at about 12 high schools in the Greenville County School district, the largest school district in SC, spokeswoman Beth Brotherton said. We marched back to school where we completed one final lap around the student courtyard, trying so hard to make sure our voices were heard.

“New Prague Area Schools fully respects and recognizes that students have free speech rights”. In reality, a portion of these students made the conscious decision to stay inside for political reasons.

At Graves County, while one group released 17 balloons outside, another group of students chose to go to the Eagle’s Nest gymnasium and pray. At another school in California, students broke through the locked gate. This is the indisputable fact that every student in America goes to school with a bundle of fear tucked into their backpack. Only some of the student body was allowed to attend.

It was not all students at the protest, many parents and local lawmakers were in attendance as well showing their support. Students stormed out of the gates of their school and over 200 students marched to the Bronx Courthouse to demand action be taken to change the violence affecting their community. “I think that’s just a very risky idea”.

“I’ve always felt safe in school”, McDonald said.

Students were still encouraged to speak up or write their legislators. “I have requested that our secondary principals work with the students and staff in each of their buildings to develop activities within the safety of our buildings that will provide students a way to voice their concerns, no matter where they fall in this debate”. “I had a lot of kids tell me that I was disrespecting the kids who died in the shooting and one kid even said that by not going I was supporting school shootings”.

Unable to feel safe in our own schools, this issue is not one we will back down from or abandon.

I am glad we followed our convictions. CCSD said the school did mark everyone who walked out as ‘tardy’. Overall, the marches across the country could rival 2017’s Women’s March in size.

But a student holding a sign supporting gun rights at New Prague High School said the principal told him to give up the sign or leave school property. It was the latest in a series of shootings that have plagued USA schools and colleges over the past two decades. The piece of legislation that is seen as having the best chance for passage, the Stop School Violence Act of 2018, makes no mention of firearms.