About 20 South High School students stood for 17 minutes in the bitter cold in Willoughby to make a statement about violence in schools.
The Willoughby-Eastlake school was one of many in the area and across the country that participated in a nationwide call that encouraged students to walk out of their for schools for 17 minutes at 10 a.m. on March 14.
>> PHOTOS: Student walkouts protest gun violence across the country, March 14, 2018
Police presence was strong at South High School during the walkout. According to Steve Nedlik, director of operations and security for the school district, the officers were on scene as a precaution to keep students safe and to prevent the public from interacting with them.
>> PHOTOS: Lorain County Students Observe National School Walkout Day, March 14, 2018.
About six members of the public were present with some holding signs saying “Not one more” during the walk out. They were not permitted on school property and stood by road on the sidewalk in front of the school.
One organization, the Women’s March Youth Empower, encouraged students to walk out and protest what it calls Congress’s refusal to take action on the gun violence plaguing schools and to honor the 17 killed during the Valentine’s Day shooting in Parkland Florida. It also encouraged teachers, school staff, parents, and anyone else who was willing to participate.
The organization provided a tool kit to schools on how to set up the walk out.
Willoughby-Eastlake administration was not in support of this walk out and notified parents by letter that participating students would be marked with an unexcused absence for part of the class.
Lily Danaeshmand, a junior at South High, said she participated because she believes this country has been in a place of violence and feels that people are ignoring the fact that children are dying in schools across the country.
“It’s too much to look at countries like Australia, Germany and Japan who have all taken action when they have had school shootings in their country and now have not had nearly as many as we have had and we still refuse to take action,” Lily said. “I would like to see that change.”
Carly Andrews, a freshman at South, participated because she doesn’t think that as younger people their thoughts are valued as much as they should be and that the students aren’t taken as seriously as they should be.
“With the school shootings they don’t believe that it can be stopped as quickly as it should be and when we are out here we are trying to take a stance to make other people try to help us out to get it to stop,” Carly said
Nick Anderson, another South High student, feels that high school students right now are on point and need to step up their game. He also believes that Americans are not used to the students speaking out and that what they are saying is being taken for granted.
“We are all in. It’s time for us to step up our game because we are going to be the game changers for what is going on,” Nick said. “The problem is so big it’s not going to go away in one year and we are up and coming in society, and we are getting older. I think that people think we do what we do to be rebellious and that isn’t the point.
“We all feel that there needs to be change and nobody can argue that what is happening isn’t out of control. Somebody has to hear us.”
Mackenzie Ramor took part because she also believes a change needs to happen to stop the violence in schools.
“I heard a few hours after the shooting (in Parkland Florida) that this change should of happened yesterday,” she said. “It’s this generation that has to stand up because other generations aren’t or they aren’t speaking loud enough. I feel as high school students, because we are affected most by the shooting, we should be a part of this.”
Other high schools such as Mentor and Riverside encouraged their students to do a walk up instead of a walk out. A walk up includes students walking up to someone they normally wouldn’t talk to and get to know them, or just say something nice to them.
April Gable, student body president at Mentor, said students participated in the Feb. 21, student walk out to get people’s attention and to get people talking, but for this one they decided to do a walk up to promote school unity.
“For this one, we decided to do a walk in or walk up to promote school unity, to promote Mentor and to promote what we have going on here,” April said. “We have started a spark and now we are trying to ignite it, create a flame and keep it going. We have decided that how we are going to make real change is by starting here at Mentor High. We are going to work with each other and contribute to each other and say hello and create more unity within our school.
At 10 a.m., Mentor High used the morning announcements to read the names of the 17 killed in Parkland and the three students killed in the Feb. 27, 2012, shooting at Chardon High School followed by 17 seconds of silence.
Riverside High School’s senior class organized several events for a walk up instead of a walk out.
“Students conducted random acts of kindness where they wrote notes to others, found peers in the hallways or cafeteria and went up to them to start a conversation,” said Nick Carrabine, director of marketing and communications for Riverside Schools. “In addition, they conducted a social media campaign called Twitter Acts of Positivity where they used the hashtags ‘Pride of the Side’ and ‘You’ve Been Chosen’ to spread positivity and share encouraging messages toward other students and staff members at Riverside.
“The idea was to be nice and pass it on when you were tagged on Twitter.”
Not one student walked out at Mentor and about 15 choose to walk out at Riverside. The Riverside school resource officer and district administrators were on hand to make sure everything went smoothly.
“Administration and faculty supports our students so long as they are being respectful and peaceful, which they were. All students returned back to class in a timely manner,” Carrabine said.
Staff Writer Tawana Roberts contributed to this article.
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