Student walkout falls short
Juniors sit outside Convent High School during class to participate in the National School Walkout protesting gun control. The walkout took place on April 20th — the 19th anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School.
April 22, 2018
ANALYSIS Students across all 50 states took part in the National School Walkout at 10 a.m. on Friday, protesting gun violence in memory of the 19th anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School, but only 30 people in the Convent & Stuart Hall community participated.
After hundreds of students from all divisions walked out for the National School Walkout on March 14, such a small turnout for yesterday’s demonstration was unexpected.
“It was a small group of people who sat outside of the school for 13 minutes,” junior Laura Bourne said about yesterday’s walkout. “There was no yelling or marching. It was really nice to kind of take a step back from all of the chaos and remember the people who were affected by shootings.”
The lack of participation was partly caused by a lack of communication among the student body, whereas for the March walkout, a senior sent out an email to the high school informing students of the location and time of the event.
“I didn’t walk out, but I didn’t know anything about it,” junior Natalia Varni said. “If I knew about it beforehand or saw other people going, I probably would have participated.”
Gun control is not an issue that one protest will make a significant impact on. When the next walkout occurs there needs to be a leader — whether it is a club or even one student — to spread the word.
“I did know that there was gonna be a walkout on April 20, but I feel like as the time came up people stopped talking about it,” senior Katie Thomis said. “We went back to talking about other issues and stopped talking about gun control.”
If students in the community want stricter gun control, just one walkout is not going to solve it. Gun control is not just something to be talked about in the aftermath of a mass school shooting. We need to exercise our right at every opportunity, to ensure progress is made. If we want change like we claim we do, we need to walk the talk.
