Students across America are responding to the horrific shooting that took the lives of 17 teens at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida 12 days ago.
Students are taking personal stands. In Ohio, after a teacher who uses a wheelchair advised her class they should escape and not worry about her in the event of a shooter, students reassured her they already formulated a plan: They all will carry her with them to safety.
And students are taking political stands, planning protests and school walkouts to push for sensible gun laws that ban weapons designed for mass carnage.
It should be no surprise students are strategizing for their own safety and demanding policy changes.
Adults haven’t done it for them, offering nothing but condolences in the wake of Columbine and Sandy Hook and the dozens of other deadly school shootings in recent years.
We have allowed a place that should be safe, a place where we tell students their futures will be brightened, to become a place where their lives are endangered and where they practice hiding in closets and under desks.
Our best advice to protect themselves in a school shooting: Hide.
They don’t want to hide any more.
They want to be seen and heard.
Among the public actions planned: The Women's March Youth EMPOWER plans a national school walkout at 10 a.m. March 14. Students nationwide will stay out of class for 17 minutes – one minute for each of the 17 lives taken in the Stoneman Douglas High shooting.
Some local school systems are supporting such student actions, including Marietta and DeKalb.
DeKalb Superintendent Steve Green sent a community letter stating the district will allow students “to peacefully protest.”
He wrote:
The DeKalb County School District supports students’ Constitutional rights to peaceful assembly and free expression. However, our top priority is to support the academic and social emotional needs of our students while maintaining a safe and orderly environment for all students and staff. We also respect those students who choose not to participate in these planned events. If a student walkout or protest happens in one of our schools, we will allow the students to peacefully protest. We encourage our students to be respectful. Please understand that the Student Code of Conduct remains in place and will be enforced during these times.
Marietta Superintendent Grant Rivera took a similar stance this weekend, writing to his students, staff and parents:
We believe that our schools educate our children so they learn to be independent and critical thinkers in a democratic society…In the event students in Marietta City Schools choose to exercise their voice through a walkout, we want you to know we will respect and empower their choice. And, at the same time, we will do everything possible to maintain safety, order, and discipline. We are not going to assign disciplinary consequences to students who engage in peaceful and respectful activism.
Fulton Schools took a different tack, initially sending a letter that warned:
Our District believes it has a responsibility to teach students how to express their beliefs in a peaceful, positive, and safe way that puts the spotlight on the message, not on the activity. To that end, our schools will only allow students to express themselves if the activity does not interrupt daily operations, classroom instruction or become disruptive...We hope you will help us guide students as they consider their involvement in student protests or walk-out activities. Any student who misses a class may face an unexcused absence. Also, if a student becomes disruptive, he or she faces the consequences of disruption of school as defined by District Policy and the Fulton County Schools Student Code of Conduct.
The letter promoted an immediate backlash that led to a quick clarification from Fulton Superintendent Jeff Rose:
Our principals and school staff are listening to students and to their various ideas about how to peacefully express themselves in the upcoming weeks. The Fulton County School System fully supports these student expression activities provided they do not disrupt the school day.
For example, if students planned with their principal to peacefully gather around the flagpole during their lunch hour with appropriate supervision and monitoring, it could be supported. If students planned with their principal to peacefully walk out to a designated campus area for 17 minutes during a non-instructional time in support of the 17 Parkland victims, it could be supported. Finally, if students choose to host a candlelight vigil or memorial on campus during a pre-designated day/ time, it could be supported.’
Rose’s clarification did not placate parents who took to the district’s Facebook page to complain:
-These students want to affect change, not "show support." A show of support won't accomplish anything. A disruption of the status quo could change things enough to save lives. These students are fighting for their lives and I support them.
-A huge pile of steaming dung. A sanctioned protest under supervision is no protest at all.
-I totally agree on being safe....that's #1 but to put stipulations on a walkout that is supposed to demonstrate support/change is where I am at odds. Like so many people have said in earlier comments that we have all sorts of drills that disrupt an instructional day...why can't a 17-minute walkout at a time the rest of the country is doing it be that hard to support!?
-Now you've really got my attention. I'll be at the school myself, supporting my son and all the kids as they protest. How dare you attempt to shame these kids into not exercising their rights! You cancel school at the idea of snow but they can't miss 17 minutes of class?! Seriously? You call yourselves educators? Infuriating. The only good thing about this is that I now see there are definitely a large number of parents who feel as I do and are also raising their kids to be critical thinkers and involved citizens.
University admissions offices are reassuring high school students they will not be dinged for a discipline report in their files due to taking a stand. MIT admissions posted this note to applicants:
“We also believe that civic responsibility is, like most things at MIT, something you learn best by doing: indeed, to be civically responsible is to put into practice the obligation we owe to each other and to the common good. At MIT our students govern and manage their residences, serve on influential committees that inform Institute affairs, make policy recommendations to serve social goals, and, yes, protest, at the local and national level. They've done all these things for generations. Indeed, the broad autonomy awarded to -- and the responsibility expected from -- MIT students is a core feature of our educational mission and culture: we hold our students to a high standard and give them a wide berth. It would be at best quixotic, and at worst hypocritical, if we treated our applicants differently, penalizing them for engaging in responsible, responsive citizenship as the students at Stoneman Douglas and elsewhere have done.
So: if any admitted students or applicants are disciplined by their high school for practicing responsible citizenship by engaging in peaceful, meaningful protest related to this (or any other) issue, we will still require them to report it to us. However, because we do not view such conduct on its face as inappropriate or inconsistent with their prior conduct, or anything we wouldn't applaud amongst our own students, it will not negatively impact their admissions outcome. We hope that this explanation will clarify the principles and policies that guide our decisions, articulate the importance of responsible citizenship, and give students the freedom to follow their own compasses wherever they lead.’’
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