Design by Carly Novell
Step Up, Walk Out Students walk out of class to protest gun violence
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s seen through the organization of March For Our Lives on March 24 and by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students on Twitter, the gun control movement is headed by the next generation of voters: students. In order to involve all students in the fight against gun violence, Women’s March Youth Action Network EMPOWER organized a national school walkout on March 14 and April 20. The walkouts aim not only to show support for victims of gun violence, but also to call for change in the country’s gun laws. Students of Miami Northwestern Senior High School in Liberty City, Florida also walked out on March 3
after the death of one of their fellow students, sophomore Kimson Lee Green. Administration warned against the walkout not because of its controversial nature, but because the safety risks of walking through their gang-ridden city. Liberty City’s gun violence issue is so severe that every year at the high school’s graduation, administration includes a memorial for its “Fallen Bulls.” One month after the MSD shooting, on March 14, high school students across the nation rallied around the community and displayed their support for gun control legislation in the first school walkout at 10 a.m. for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 victims. Thousands of students from at least 2,600 different schools participated and risked
disciplinary action from their school’s administration. Locally, Broward County Public Schools stressed that students who chose to participate in their school walkouts would not receive disciplinary action due to the proximity and prominence of MSD in their communities. However, distant counties such as Cobb County in Georgia issued an in-school suspension to all students who participated in a walkout. “I’m just disappointed that my county failed to recognize the intentionality behind our demonstration and merely focussed on what they saw as a disruption,” Cobb County senior Daniel Marks said. Despite certain counties’ attempts to discourage students from walking out, many colleges, including George Washington University and Tulane
University, reassured their applicants who received disciplinary action for participating in a walkout that they would not be penalized on their application. On April 20, the 19-year anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado, students walked out for the second time, calling for gun reform. Students were encouraged to wear the color orange for their walkouts because of the Wear Orange Campaign which began in 2015 after 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was killed in a 2013 gang shooting. Her family wore orange in honor of her, and later became activists against gun violence. Thus, orange became the color symbolizing gun violence awareness and Pendleton’s legacy exists through today’s activists wearing orange for gun
Spreading the Love. Coral Springs High School students stand for a heart shape in support of MSD at a March 14 walkout. Photo courtesy of Bradley Lyons/Coral Springs High School Yearbook Eagles in Their Nest. Principal Ty Thompson mourns with students on the foorball field during MSD’s March 14 walkout. Photo by Kevin Trejos
Spreading the Love
Stand Up and Walk Out. MSD students gather in the courtyard on anniversary of Columbine High School shooting on April 20. Immediately following the gathering, some students walked out of school to protest gun violence. Photo by Kevin Trejos
16 Activism • Walkouts
Eagles in Their Nest
