On Wednesday, thousands of students across the United States, joined by young people from around the world, plan to walk out of class at 10 AM local time to honor the seventeen students and staff members massacred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month. March 14th is the one-month anniversary of the shooting in Parkland, Florida.
In many cases, students will be joined by teachers, administrators, family members, and other supporters who are angered by gun violence in the United States. While each protest will differ in form, many will demand that federal and state governments pass legislation to regulate firearms and to ban the private ownership of assault weapons. While some school districts have announced that students who cut classes will face disciplinary action, more than 250 colleges released statements saying that disciplinary action against students who are involved in peaceful protests will not hurt their application for admission to their institutions.
At the same time, Donald Trump, who seemed to favor at least minor restrictions on gun ownership after the Parkland massacre, has backtracked. Under pressure from the NRA, he dropped his initial call to raise the age limit for purchasing some weapons. The Trump “gun control plan” actually calls for expanding the number of guns in schools by arming teachers and security personnel. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal called arming teachers “an absolutely abhorrent response to school shootings – opposed by law enforcement, students, and educators alike.”
The ACLU emphasized that students have a legal right to participate in responsible protest and that school officials cannot punish students for “missing school to participate in political protest more harshly than it punishes students for missing school for any other purpose.” The National Association of Secondary School Principals also affirmed “Students should not be disciplined for engaging in the act of protest.” Many school districts are taking precautionary measures to ensure the safety of students who participate.
On Saturday March 24, a national student-led March for Our Lives will take place in Washington, D.C. Because the National Mall was already scheduled for another event, the march will assemble on Pennsylvania Avenue Pennsylvania Avenue between 3rd and 12th street NW. As many as 500,000 people are expected to participate.
Over five hundred “sister marches” are being organized in cities across the country and around the world. They include Portland, Oregon; Boise, Idaho; Philadelphia, New York City, San Francisco, Dallas and Chicago in the United States, Dublin and Cork in Ireland, Paris, France, Brussels, Belgium, Edinburgh, Scotland, London, England, Madrid, Spain, Bogota, Colombia, Mumbai, India, Tokyo, Japan, and five cities in Australia. The NYC March for Our Lives will assemble at the W 72nd Street entrance to Central Park. The rally starts at 11AM and people are asked to arrive by 10.
Housing so many young people in Washington DC before and after the rally poses a vast logistical problem. Students at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland are organizing a “home-sharing network” with host families and at local churches and synagogues in the D.C. area. The City of Baltimore is providing sixty free buses, lunch, and tee-shirts to ferry students to the Washington DC gun control rally.
Additional anti-gun violence rallies are planned for April 20, the 19th anniversary of shootings at Columbine High School. They will include local actions and a march in Washington DC. Its program includes opposition to Trump’s proposal to arm teachers and support for a ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines; raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21; prohibiting people convicted of domestic abuse or the subject of court orders of protection from purchasing a weapon; and requiring the licensing and registration of guns in all states.
This weekend I met with forty high school students from Schenectady, New York who are planning to participate in the March 14 walkout. They are meeting with teachers and school administrators to coordinate the activity. They plan a vigil for the seventeen people who died in Florida and also for victims of gun violence from the hometown. At least six of the students spoke about friends or family members who died from gun violence. Students from other Capital Region schools are also planning to participate in the walkout. So far, they include Niskayuna, Saratoga Springs, Ballston Spa, Shenendehowa and Scotia-Glenville.
Support to the anti-gun violence campaigns is pouring in from around the country. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio called on the city’s schools to develop lessons to prepare students for the March 14th walkout. “We need to recognize the power of the moment and let young people participate, but the discussion around it educationally needs to be an objective one.” The Mayor added, “If I was a high school student today, I’d be walking out — there’s no question about it.”
De Blasio was caught by surprise at a public forum held in the city, when students, empowered by outspoken students from Parkland, Florida, let the mayor know they were upset when he suggested that metal detectors would be a solution to create safer schools. Ayobami Olabode, age 16, a student at the Scholars’ Academy in Queens, accused de Blasio of missing the “whole point of this meeting, which was to hear the students out.”
A large number of New York City metropolitan area schools will be participating in the walkout. New York City’s Stuyvesant High School Facebook page is organizing school alumni to join the school's students who will participate in the National School Walkout on Wednesday, March 14. Protestors will assemble at 9:30 am in a park across from the entrance to the school at the intersection of Chambers Street and North End Avenue. The student walkout is from 10am until 10:17am, with students joining us in the park. At Midwood High School in Brooklyn, New York, students will gather at a nearby park for while the names of the 17 Parkland victims are read aloud.
New York School Chancellor Carmen Fariña sent a letter to students and their families announcing that the New York City Department of Education supports students “participating in civic engagement and exercising of their First Amendment rights” and encouraging discussion of the issues at home. Students who have parental permission to participate will receive an excused absence from class. However, students without parental permission will receive an unexcused absence.
In Idaho state superintendent Sherri Ybarra announced, “We believe the best place for students during the school day is with their teachers. We encourage students to work with their schools if they are planning to participate so steps may be taken to ensure their safety.” In Kittery, Maine, the school district will support students if they walk out, but not if they leave the school grounds. School authorities are also supporting student protests in Portland, Maine.
In Indian Prairie, Illinois, the District Superintendent Karen Sullivan announced the district would not take any disciplinary action against students who choose to join the rally. Sullivan called the walkout a “teachable moment for our students and we respect their desire to enact change.”
Stephen Zadravec, the superintendent of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire School District, met with student leaders and said his administration supports what the students are doing. He announced there would be no disciplinary action taken against high school students who choose to participate, as long as they do not leave the school campus. Middle school students who want to participate will go to the high school. The district plans to have additional police officers on duty to ensure student safety.
In Newport News, Virginia and neighboring communities school officials will cooperate with student protesters who rally in designated areas and their will be no penalties. Roanoke County, Virginia middle and high school will also be able to join the national walkout.
In Charlotte, North Carolina school administrators embrace the surge of civic engagement. Many schools will allow students to leave classes briefly to gather in courtyards or on athletic fields. At South Mecklenburg High there will be day long activities discussing civic activism and gun violence and the vigil for the Florida shooting victims will take place at sunset.
The New Jersey School Boards Association suggested that school leaders consider “building an education event around the 17-minute observation, such as a forum at which students can express their concerns. They may also give permission for a walk-out with a strictly enforced requirement that students return to class immediately afterward. Through such an approach, student protestors, who adhere to restrictions, would not be violating policy or discipline codes.”
Unfortunately, a number of school districts, especially in Texas, have announced they will punish students who participate in rallies. A school district in Wisconsin sent a letter to parents telling them that the teachers and students would not be excused if they participate and will be subject to disciplinary measures.
At a meeting of the New York State Council for the Social Studies in Albany, a number of teachers raised questions about their ability to participate in the walkout alongside students in their classes. School personnel have a constitutional right to express their views about school policy but districts have the right to restrict what teachers are permitted to say to students during the school day while functioning as teachers, counselors, or administrators. I recommended that teachers meet with school administrators to clarify school policy and if they want, volunteer to supervise student rallies to ensure they are conducted responsibly. I also recommend working with students to establish extracurricular student action clubs, chartered by the school, where students can discuss current issues, invite speakers, conduct research, write papers and statements, and organize political action projects.
Support for the student led anti-gun violence protests has also come from some unexpected places. The cast of ABC’s “Modern Family” announced supported for the "March For Our Lives.” Julie Bowen, Sofia Vergara, and Ed O’Neill appear in a one-minute public service announcement for Everytown for Gun Safety.
Pop star Justin Bieber urges his fans to support the March 24th March for Our Lives protest and is promoting the online petition demanding gun control legislation. The petition calls on Congress to pass legislation “to ban the sale of assault weapons like the ones used in Las Vegas, Orlando, Sutherland Springs, Aurora, Sandy Hook and, most recently, to kill 17 innocent people and injure more than a dozen others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.” It also demands an end to the “sale of high-capacity magazines” and closing background check loopholes.
The petition closes: “The children of this country can no longer go to school in fear that each day could be their last.”
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