The tragic Stoneman Douglas shooting stunned the nation. In its wake, high schools across the United States have taken the opportunity to speak out against gun violence. Both students and faculty participated in a nationwide walkout, leaving classes for 17 minutes to remember the 17 people killed on February 14. On March 14, about 200 students from Lyman Hall joined these voices and participated in a walkout to condemn gun violence.
Students held the walkout to respect the victims of the Parkland shooting as well as to protest the lack of change in gun control laws. Junior Class President Eric Lipka explained, “As students, we are tired of losing our brothers and sisters to the epidemic of gun violence plaguing our nation and destroying our communities. We marched in order to demand justice for the victims of not only Parkland, but for all those innocent lives which we have lost to gun violence.” The controversial issue particularly touched students in schools in Connecticut, like those at Lyman Hall, after the nearby Sandy Hook shooting.
The protest began as a walk-in organized by the administrations of Lyman Hall and Sheehan High. During a discussion between students and school administrators, many students suggested planning a walkout instead, but the administration rejected the idea. Lipka explained, “We had met with the Superintendent to notify him of our position against the walk-in alternative which was handed to students the weekend prior to the event. While it was a respectful meeting with lots of discussion, in the end we agreed to disagree.” According to Lyman Hall Student Council members, administrators threatened students with disciplinary consequences if they participated in a walkout. Nonetheless, the Lyman Hall Student Council continued planning the walkout. “The whole principle of the matter was that the administrators agreed on it, not the students,” explained Student Council President Hollianne Lao.
Around 200 Lyman Hall students participated in a walkout organized by Student Council members.
Lipka explained that the administration threatened to suspend any student who exited school property during the demonstration, so the student body planned to walk to the senior courtyard, a location outside the building but within school grounds. The event was largely publicized through social media. Lao and Lipka created a graphic which spread through Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. On the day of the protest, between 150 and 200 students participated in the walkout, while only about 30 students participated in the walk-in. According to Lao, “The walkout shows that the students are able to support what they believe in, in any capacity.”
Student opinion on the walkout varied. “Many students were on board with the idea of a walkout,” said Alexis Rodriguez, a member of Lyman Hall Student Council. “As for others,” she continued, “the walkout was viewed as disrespectful towards our principal and the idea of respecting the victims.” However, there appeared to be more frustration about the school’s walk-in, which some viewed as an attempt to silence student voices disguised as a protest. The superintendent did eventually issue a statement preventing the punishment of walkout participants after the march had taken place.
“We are hoping for the walkout to be the first step in making change in our schools and across the nation, so overall we can feel more safe and stop the consistent shootings,” said Lao, elaborating, “We are planning to have more events focused on the issue, such as letter-writing sessions to the survivors of Parkland and to members of Congress, and voter registration sessions, so this was the first step in raising awareness.”
Another one of the many schools that participated in the March 14 walkout was Sheehan High School, a public school here in Wallingford. In response to why Sheehan participated in the walkout, Sheehan student Carolyn Biel said, “We felt as students we should have a voice. Being told we were not allowed to walk out when a large number of other schools were allowed was not fair.” She continued, “The goal of the walkout was to prove students have a voice and can make a difference.” Gregory Dirkson, Sheehan’s Assistant Principal, was in charge of the walkout and supported the students’ interest in participating in the protest.
Biel explained that, in order to organize the event, “a meeting was held at the town hall,” at which student leaders from Sheehan and Lyman Hall discussed what would take place during the walkout. Though told by the police department that an organized walkout outside would be unsafe, the students were still able to gather in their auditorium and honor the students lost in the Parkland shooting.
Biel explained that, in addition to a video presentation honoring the Parkland students, Sheehan pupils were able to participate in “a mindfulness session, voting registration, letter writing to families at Parkland and local authority figures — superintendent, [the] board of [education] — a peer to peer session in a classroom, and open mic in the auditorium after the presentation.”
Through collaboration with their peers, students at Sheehan were able to organize the walkout and condemn gun violence.
