Walkout

Yesterday was the National School Walkout for gun control. Jordan's school participated actively: here is the letter we got from the assistant principal.

Dear Parents, 

In the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, the gun safety debate is once again at the forefront of our minds. However, as I told the kids last week in All School Meeting, the response feels a little different this time. Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have organized and are actively seeking support of their message, that "Congress must take meaningful action to keep students safe and pass federal gun reform legislation that addresses the public health crisis of gun violence." Many of our students have expressed a desire to support the message and to add their own voices. 

On March 14, next Wednesday, a National School Walkout is planned. The walkout will last 17 minutes to commemorate the 17 lives that were taken on February 14. We have invited students to join in showing our support for safe and sane gun laws. Students who would like to participate in the walkout have been asked to join me for one lunch period before March 14 to research and study gun laws and statistics in the US and to make thoughtful signs to hold during the walkout. Additionally, teachers have been sharing and assigning reading and holding discussions in classes to make sure our students are informed about both sides of the debate. I am amazed, heartened, and optimistic about our kids' response to this conversation. 

Please join us in continuing this conversation with your students at home. And, if you would like to, join us at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 14 as we congregate outside our school building to show our support for the Parkland students and say #Enough. 

Thank you,
Catherine

I am proud of the leadership position the school is taking, including educating the students about the issues. I joined the walkout myself, which for me meant standing for 17 minutes in contemplation of the lives lost and lives still at risk. About half the school participated. Here they are holding their signs along the street in front of the school.



As you can see in the photo, the street is very quiet at 10am on a Wednesday. But everyone who drove by honked and waved and gave the kids a thumbs-up. I imagined driving around the city past multiple schools and seeing multiple demonstrations.

Jordan chose not to participate in the walkout. He felt sure that there was not going to be much of an audience for their demonstration, which said to him that it was not very meaningful, and he felt his time would be better spent in class. In addition, when there was a walkout protest last year (about the election), some kids behaved badly - for example, being rude to passing cars; Jordan felt implicated in their behavior that time, and didn't want to participate in that again. I think all these reasons are completely legitimate and am pleased that the school supported students' individual decisions. (I also learned that the school had provided this week's structure partly in response to last year's behavior: they wanted participating students to show some investment in the issues first, by spending a lunch period doing research and making signs.) For myself, I felt that participating linked me to something bigger, whether there was an audience or not, and I wanted to spend that time in silence. 

I have friends whose kids organized their school's walkouts and gave amazing speeches. I have other friends whose kids' schools did not support the walkout, such that those kids were marked with an unexcused absence. I think that those kids got different and also-valuable pieces of education, about leadership in the former case, and resisting local authority in the latter. 

Aaron's school did not communicate with the students about the walkout. They explained,

Our students are too young to know all of the details for this event. Our recess time is 10:00am and our students will be happily playing outside. SJCS teachers and staff will walk outside at that time, and we will stand together while watching the students play and quietly hold the intention for the end of gun violence knowing that other teachers, staff and high school students around our country are doing the same at this time. May we all grow in wisdom and courage. 

Though I think the school is right that on the whole, elementary school children are too young, I was pleased to learn that Aaron's grade honored the moment in their own way. They talked about wanting everyone to feel safe in school, discussed the ways in which their school strives to keep them safe, and stood in a silent line for 17 seconds.