By Sara Balter |News|
On Wednesday, March 14, 2018, students from over 3,000 locations across the United States acted together and walked out of their 10 a.m. classes all in the name of one issue: gun violence.
These events were held to commemorate the one-month anniversary of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. Students who protested were asked to do so for 17 minutes to honor the 17 students and staff who were killed in the shooting.
These protests were organized by the “Women’s March Youth EMPOWER” (WMYE), a student-run collective that is supported by over 90 partners.
According to their website, “The Women’s March Youth EMPOWER Toolkit is an initiative of Women’s March Youth through a coalition with Peace First, Rise To Run, Teen Vogue, The Justice League NYC, The Gathering For Justice, and Rock The Vote. Women’s March EMPOWER upholds the unity principles of the Women’s March platform. Our goal is to provide young people with the tools needed to create high school and college chapters that guide students in making a positive impact in their communities.”
However, not everyone just walked out of class. Some groups did more like holding speeches and others releasing balloons. Some students did not have school and therefore held their own protests. In Lincoln, Nebraska, the March for Our Lives committee set up 17 school desks in front of Love Library on the University of Nebraska Lincoln campus and around a large sculpture in the downtown area as a form of protest. Senior Kira Taylore is a representative from the March for Our Lives committee.
“We didn’t want to so easily forget, like the news does, after every other shooting before now,” Taylore said.
All Lincoln high schools will also be holding their own walkouts on April 20th, 2018 at 10 a.m. under the Walk Out committee which is registered with the WMYE. Students that leave class to participate in Lincoln Public School walkouts will be counted absent for classes missed, as is stated in an email sent to parents and staff from Lincoln Public Schools officials.
The purpose of the cause however, also known as #ENOUGH, is to demand that Congress enact an immediate resolution declaring gun violence a public health crisis and dedicating federal funding to research solutions and implement violence intervention programs. Other demands include having Congress recognize all forms of gun violence, including violence committed by police. Therefore the “Women’s March Youth EMPOWER” is currently asking that Congress ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines, expand background checks to all gun sales, pass gun violence restraining order laws, and pass the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act.
Their website states, “We need action. Students and allies are organizing the national school walkout to demand Congress pass legislation to keep us safe from gun violence at our schools, on our streets and in our homes and places of worship.”
Others have also stated that they believe that now is a time for action. As Emma Gonzalez, a victim from the Florida massacre, in a press conference held on February 17th stated,
“We are going to be the kids you read about in textbooks. Not because we’re going to be another statistic about mass shooting in America, but because, just as David said, we are going to be the last mass shooting. Just like Tinker v. Des Moines, we are going to change the law. That’s going to be Marjory Stoneman Douglas in that textbook, and it’s going to be due to the tireless effort of the school board, the faculty members, the family members and most of all the students.”
For more information about WMYE or the walkouts go to https://www.womensmarch.com/empower/
