CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — As a bell tolled 17 times Wednesday morning, one month after 17 people were killed in a school shooting in Parkland, Fla., more than 1,000 people at the University of Virginia stopped to listen. Many wiped away tears.
For a generation of students who have heard about school shootings, the latest carnage was all too familiar. Many, such as U-Va. student council president Sarah Kenny, learned how to lock down as a small child. A series of sniper attacks terrified the Washington area when Kenny was a little girl, and students at her elementary school didn’t go outside for recess for weeks, she said.
[ Thousands of students walk out of school in nationwide protest against gun violence ]
And so when teenagers in Parkland began demanding an end to gun violence after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School left 17 people dead, their message carried: Students across the country joined them. At schools as varied as Wayne State College, Tulane University, Southwest Minnesota State University and Georgetown University, students and faculty members walked out of classes Wednesday morning.
“I haven’t seen a protest or demonstration like this in my time at U-Va.,” Kenny said.
The issue is resonating, she said, “because what happened at Virginia Tech could have happened at U-Va. What happened at Parkland could have happened at U-Va.
“People are afraid. People don’t feel that grounded sense of security. If you don’t have that, you can’t learn.”
At Southwest Minnesota State University, about 75 people walked out of classes Wednesday, surprising Anita Talsma Gaul, who teaches American history there. She had hung up orange signs all over campus, but had thought, “It might just be me with my sign, standing at the flagpole.”
She wasn’t expecting much support, because “around where we live, this is an extremely volatile issue. Guns are a big deal out here. It’s a very rural area, and the Second Amendment is just behind abortion in the touch-button issues that determine how people vote.
“Most people are pro-Second Amendment, pro-gun rights. There is a lot of hunting, and a lot of people who feel they need them for self-defense.”
After hearing about tragedy after tragedy over the years, she said, she felt moved to take a stand. “Maybe to let people know that people feel this way even here, in the middle of gun country.” Far from the East Coast and city people, she said, “there are people who feel this way here, too.”
At Georgetown University, Madison Thomas, a junior, said about 500 students walked out of class, and elementary school children from Holy Trinity School nearby joined them.
At Tulane University in New Orleans, senior Emily Godsick said, “We have a lot of students that attend Tulane that are from Parkland, and were affected by that deeply. . . . We just want to come together to show the community we feel strongly about this subject.
“It’s really important that we do this.”
At U-Va., the threat of violence has felt raw since August clashes between white supremacists and counterprotesters turned deadly, Kenny said, and many students have been worried about armed extremists in Charlottesville since then.
“In the past year, I felt a very dramatic shift in the sense of fear,” she said.
On Wednesday, fourth-year student Mimi Robinson said the event felt too important to miss.
“It is the duty of the government to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” U-Va. history professor Tico Braun said.
“It is time for public opinion to finally drive policy change,” Kenny told the crowd, “and students need to be at the front and center of that change.”
