Our younger son participated imma walkout where they took the train to the Capitol a few days after the
Florida shootings. He didn’t feel like he could do it again so soon. When his group went it wasn’t school approved, but they had a police escort to the Metro station.
There were marches at the high schools in my city. The one central city high school is only a few blocks from the state capitol buildings, so they went that way.
There have been some scattered, poorly organized walkouts in Austin, including at the school where I teach.
I wasn’t “proud” of the kids as they had no coordination and no real agenda. I don’t share their views on gun control, but would have respected them if they’d had anything resembling a plan.
I believe I’d feel the same way even if they were walking out in support of a cause I’m more sympathetic to, but you’re free to distrust me.
Because the purpose of a protest is to disrupt normal operations. School had to be disrupted by their actions.
I do not get why people don’t get this. It’s not a protest if you aren’t inconvencing you intended target. It’s just talking.
Really? where is that bit of logic written down? the anarchist’s cookbook? Why would disrupting one’s own education serve any purpose?
I don’t get it because It doesn’t make sense.
This is one motivation for a protest or strike, but not the only one.
My daughter organized her middle/high school and I couldn’t be prouder! She organized with the admin, PTA, sent out press releases, did press interviews, was featured in the Seattle Times, organized the content. Her school did it indoors (rains a lot here), profiles of the 17 killed, and then observed 17 minutes of silence. Younger daughter said she saw only one incident of a 6th grader trying to take their phone out, and peers gave the perp a stink eye. Standing room only in the resource room/cafeteria, and more than half the students took part. 
Much as this student activism is laudable, it’d be nice if they were equally fervent about reporting fellow students who make threats, and standing up against bullying that leads some unbalanced types to extreme acts of revenge.
“A day away from school”? Did you see that the walkout was seventeen minutes long, and held exactly one month after the Parkland shooting, where seventeen people died? Even assuming some time lost before and after the walkout, perhaps only half an hour was lost.
And I would think it’s a good thing that kids are interested and engaged in an issue of national importance, particularly one that affects them directly.\
FYI, at my old high school, the students were met outside by the teachers, who were there to cheer them on.
Any other things they must do to make the world right before you’ll listen to them on this point? I was unaware there was a priority list they had to work through in order.
I think this was my favorite part of the whole thing. I liked the kids doing this, I like that it caught on like it did. I’m proud of them - but I’m also amused by high schools who misread their position so poorly when they threatened disciplinary action.
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They can do BOTH
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As has been pointed out many times, this is a dangerous message to send to a certain subset of young people - its how women get stuck with abusers. Its how you end up with a straight laced kid getting arrested when he hangs with a “loser” because he’s trying to be nice - and that unbalanced kid gets drunk and vandalizes private property. It puts the responsibility for correcting the behavior of a person who is - as you said - unbalanced - in the hands of their peers. “If you love him enough, he will change” is the message of Beauty and the Beast - and its a fairytale - not a plan to address school and workplace violence.
My daughter is a Senior in high school this year - I know they had a walkout, but she wasn’t there. She’s been in the highschool twice this year. We pulled her out and she is enrolled at community college - getting high school credit (and for her college, its Spring Break). Because, as the school administration said to us, “high school sucks for a lot of kids - and your daughter is one of them.” You know one of the reasons she was bullied? - because she stands up for others and herself.
Your co-worker should discipline the kid for truancy. The walk-out was only 17 minutes long. Unless she was doing her own counterprotest that was longer, and involved lunch with her dad, she was doing it wrong.
Or the co-worker’s daughter who objected to the “anti-gun tone” could have simply walked back into the school. I assume not everyone walked out.
Of course it does. Would we even be here bitching and moaning if it happened on a Saturday? Obviously, they did it primarily because it was the one-month anniversary of the shooting, but also a mid-week protest that breaks up the normal flow of the day is more high profile than something quietly done on a Saturday. It’s basic marketing. I mean, just look at this thread for evidence.
I support the students, but I also would have supported detentions for the students. I think that would be a great lesson, too, that sometimes we have to fight for what we believe in, despite the possibility of negative consequences. (That said, I’m also glad the educators went with it in solidarity with the students. But I would not have been upset if they didn’t.)
These are the same kids that last month were eating Tide Pods.
I support the “Walk Up” movement, not the “Walk Out” movement.
Of course you do. If you were to actually choose the CORRECT side of any argument, the universe would go dark and end.
She was doing what wrong? It’s not like she tore down an American flag or jumped on a cop car.
The adult that did the shooting in question probably hadn’t eaten any Tide Pods and the same can probably said for most adults that have committed mass shootings. Should they be listened to more than the students?
Spending 17 minutes on the protesting activity.
For a lot of schools it was longer. For a lot of Twin Cities schools they went to the capitol or city hall for the afternoon.
But OF COURSE she had the option to stay in class. And I’m really trying to figure out how dumb you have to be to not be aware that this protest would have an “anti-gun” tone.