The National School Walkout

The National School Walkout was a national protest led by students in response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting on April 20, 2018.[1] The event was held as part of the 2018 US demonstrations against gun violence.

Conception
An aerial view of Scotts Ridge Middle School (closer) and Ridgefield High School (farther), which share the same campus. The National School Walkout organizers attended RHS.

After the shooting in Parkland, student Lane Murdock uploaded a petition to change.org, asking people to protest the lack of responses that follow school shootings in America by participating in a walkout. The petition accumulated over 270,000 signatures.[2][3][4] Murdock and fellow Ridgefield High School students Paul Kim, Max Cumming, and Grant Yaun partnered with Indivisible to successfully rollout the effort.[5][1]

The NationalSchoolWalkout Twitter accumulated more than 100,000 followers in five days.[6] National School Walkout scheduled the nation wide walkout to take place on April 20, as it marked the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High school shooting.[2][5] The official color for The National School Walkout was orange, as a nod to the color hunters wear to distinguish fellow hunters from animals.[6]

Event

The walkout took place at 10 o’clock in the morning in each local time zone. When students headed outside, they participated in 13 seconds of silence to honour the 13 people killed at Columbine High School.[2] Many walkouts consisted of the incorporation of open mics, to guest speakers and even voter registration sections; where senior students that were eligible, registered to vote.[2] Some students also wrote letters to students from other school communities that have been impacted by school shootings,[7] whereas others decided to set booths where students could call their representatives to pressure lawmakers over gun control.

The April 20 walkout organized by Murdock was set to last until the end of the school day, because the issue is one that needed to be ‘addressed [for] longer than 17 minutes’.[7] This was said in reference to the March 14 walkout, which lasted for 17 minutes to mark the 17 lives lost at the Marjory Stone High School shooting, after which students returned to their classrooms.[4]

Response
Students partaking in the National School Walkout in Washington DC on April 20. Image attributed to: SLOWKING

Murdock’s plan to hold a school walkout met much criticism from different groups of people, ranging from students and staff from Columbine High school to educators of various schools and even government branches of education from different states across the country. The backlash was largely due to uncertainty about the purpose of the walkout, as well as its overlap with many standardized student exams.[8]

National School Walkout occurred on the anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting, but faced criticism from students, alumni and staff from the high school. It was custom for classes to be cancelled on April 24 for Columbine High School students in honor of those who passed during the shooting to allow students to engage in community service. Many members from the school community expressed their dislike of the walkout being held on that day and made it clear that they did not support it.[9] The principal from Columbine High School, Scott Christy, wrote a letter addressed to students from different high schools near the area; prompting them to partake in community service in lieu of participating in a walkout. The letter read, "Please consider planning service projects, an activity that will somehow build up your school . . . as opposed to a walkout.”[9]

The New York City Department of Education announced that students who were absent from school due to the walkout would be marked with an unexcused absence.[1] Other schools across the country also placed restrictions on students's ability to participate.[1] This led to some students holding alternative events after school. However, other schools compromised with students holding demonstrations before, or after school or permitting them to attend walkouts, if they had a parental note.[9]

Parkland Students organized their own walkout in their community. The morning of the nationwide walkout, news broke that one person was injured in a shooting at Forest High School in Ocala, Florida.[8] This led to some students cancelling their planned walkouts, but also energized others, such as David Hogg, who expressed in a video posted on his social media that the event reiterated the necessity of the walkout.[10]

American students at the tertiary level also took part in demonstrations to show their support for the National School Walkout. Harvard Students also partook in the walkout, placing particular emphasis on emphasising the rights of minority groups.[11] American students at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England also participated in walkouts to show support to students back in the United States and call for gun control.[11]

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References
  1. Binkley, Collin (21 April 2018). "U.S. students stage walkout protests". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  2. Gold, Michael (April 19, 2018). "What to Expect From the National School Walkout for Gun Safety". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  3. O'Connor, Lydia (2018-02-22). "Here Are The Biggest Nationwide Gun Control Protests Planned". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  4. Gray, S (2018). "Everything You Need to Know About The April 20 National School Walkout". Time.
  5. Boboltz, Sara (2018-03-04). "This Connecticut High School Student Is Leading A National Anti-Gun Walkout". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  6. Ormseth, Matthew. "15-Year-Old From Ridgefield Behind Nationwide Walkout Protesting Gun Violence In Schools". courant.com. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  7. Shapiro, E (2018-04-20). "National School Walkout: Everything to know about the upcoming event". ABC News. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  8. "Student activists, protesting gun violence, time latest walkout to Columbine anniversary". Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  9. Truong, Debbie (19 April 2018). "Walkout planned on columbine anniversary". The Washington Post.
  10. Reuters, AP (2018-04-21). "Thousands of US students walk out in protest of gun violence on 19th anniversary of Columbine". ABC News. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  11. Takahama, Elise (April 20, 2018). "Harvard students rally against gun violence". The Boston Globe.
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