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Thousands of students walk out of school in nationwide gun violence protest

by Joe Heim, Marissa J. Lang and Susan Svrluga March 14 at 3:45 PM

The nationally organized walkouts, most of which lasted 17 minutes in symbolic tribute to the 17 victims of the Florida school shooting, are unprecedented in recent American history. Supporters said the protests represent a realization of power and influence by young people raised on social media.

(Video: Monica Akhtar, Ashleigh Joplin/The Post, photo: Michael Robinson Chavez/The Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/03/14/students-have-just-had-enough-walkouts-planned-across-the-nation-one-month-after-florida-shooting/?utm_term=.bfb5d64ace57
Students at thousands of schools across the country walked out of class March 14 to demand tighter gun control.
(Monica Akhtar, Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post)

Everywhere, it seemed, the students had had enough.
At thousands of schools across the country, from Alaska to Florida and everywhere in between, students walked out of class Wednesday to protest gun violence and to mark one month since a mass shooting left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

The nationally organized walkouts, which come 10 days before a march on Washington organized by Stoneman Douglas survivors that could draw hundreds of thousands of students to the nation’s capital, are unprecedented in recent American history. Supporters say the protests represent a realization of power and influence by young people raised on social media who have come of age in an era of never-ending wars, highly publicized mass shootings and virulent national politics.

Many of the participants said the focus on gun control was not an expression of party preference. What they are demanding from Republicans and Democrats alike is action on an issue they believe has been shuffled aside by lawmakers for too long. In an election year, with every member of the House and a third of the Senate running for office, the students are determined to make an impact.

“Hey hey, ho ho! Gun violence has got to go!” they chanted as they walked quickly to the Capitol grounds. People stepped out of nearby buildings and clapped and cheered as they walked past.

At the Capitol, they met up with other protesting students and heard from lawmakers at an impromptu rally.

“I look at the crowd and I see the future, and I see you, and I came here to say thank you,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said before leading the crowd in a “Si se puede” chant, the Spanish phrase for “Yes we can.” “Because I know you will accomplish what I and others have failed to do.”

Parker Dymond, a freshman at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Burke, Va., said that after every school shooting, the students at his school observe a moment of silence.

It has become such a frequent occurrence, said Dymond, 15, that it no longer felt like enough.

So Dymond and a handful of other St. Andrew’s students skipped school Wednesday to protest in front of the White House and on the Capitol lawn and call for action on gun control.

“Our school had a ‘coming together’ instead of a walkout,” Dymond said. “But that felt disrespectful to me, to honor the victims but ignoring the reason they died.”

“Everything about this is political,” added Devin Lucas, 17, a junior at St. Andrews.

At demonstrations across the country, in blue states and red states, the outpouring by students was an expression of grief and solidarity with schools and families that had experienced shooting deaths as well as a fierce warning to politicians to act.

At Columbine High School in Colorado, where shooters killed 12 students and one teacher in 1999, Myriah Murren, 14, told her mother “I love you” as she was dropped off before sunrise Wednesday. The freshman said she planned to walk out of class later in the morning to send a message to students who survived the shooting in Florida that she and her classmates “care for them.” “A lot of people will join in,” she said, adding that going to a school that was the site of one of the earliest mass school shootings makes her and her classmates more aware of the issue.

At Minnetonka High School southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul, students walked out of classes on a cold late-winter morning saying they want politicians to take up their cause, even if they have to show them the way.

“We’re tired of sitting around and listening to politicians tell us what they are going to do without ever actually doing anything. And we’re also just kind of tired of adults not making it happen — adults saying what they are going to do and then just entirely blowing us off,” said Dominic Barry, 16, a junior at the school. “We’re the next generation for all these issues and we want people to know that we’re not going to sit around and let other people not take action on these issues.”

Students at Eastern High in Northeast Washington walked out of school into frigid temperatures. They poured onto the field carrying signs honoring the victims of Parkland, and surrounded their school’s track. While the school choir sang “Lean on Me” over the loudspeakers, students released 17 balloons for each of the 17 Parkland victims. Two students said each of their names aloud, then recognized the D.C. residents who lose their lives to gun violence each year.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/03/14/students-have-just-had-enough-walkouts-planned-across-the-nation-one-month-after-florida-shooting/?utm_term=.1932f3824d09