Safety-wary PB students walk out
Pine Bluff High School students staged a walkout Thursday morning in protest of safety issues on campus and around the city, as well as the likelihood of temporarily relocating the school to Jack Robey Junior High School.
Most of the school’s 890 students gathered at Jordan Stadium, the school’s football venue, with a few holding signs either honoring fellow student Tristian Harris or dismissing Superintendent Barbara Warren’s suggestion of relocating the high school to a campus with fewer entrance points than the present PBHS location due to safety concerns. Students and faculty have dealt with multiple brawls on campus, some of which led to arrests, as well as the loss of other young people across the city due to violence.
Harris, 17, was found dead following a shooting at the Elm Street Apartments on Monday afternoon. Two males, ages 20 and 17, are being held without bail on suspicion of capital murder, terroristic act and aggravated assault.
Tamariyae Milton, a senior, said she was a close friend of Harris and worked with him at a nearby McDonald’s. The rally, she said, was originally to encourage school leaders to do more to stop the violence, but also turned into a protest against relocation, a topic that heated up during an interest meeting for the district’s facilities committee at the school cafeteria Tuesday.
“It’s easy to sneak off here,” she said. “It’s like an open campus.”
Sophomore Claire Shepherd believes a bigger campus than PBHS would be safer and added most kids don’t want to go back to Robey.
Freshman Elizabeth Cleary, speaking with a tear running down her cheek, called out school district officials, alleging they haven’t done anything
about violence when they say they want to bring some measure of justice.
“There’s zero tolerance against bullying, and there’s nothing being done,” she said. “Bullying is leading to suicide, depression and other things going on, and they can’t even fix a minor issue. I feel like, when someone tells them something is happening around the community, they want to judge them about their characteristics, so something needs to be done, justice and peace.”
More consequences and etiquette need to be enforced, Elizabeth suggested.
The problem isn’t just limited to Pine Bluff High School, according to sophomore India Trotter.
“They need more resources for us to have,” India said. “We have way too much free time. They have nothing down here for us to do around the city of Pine Bluff. This is deeper than just Pine Bluff High. There have been multiple kids dying. One is enough.”
WARREN TALKS WITH STUDENTS
Parents and faculty members including Principal Michael Anthony were on hand to support and supervise the students’ walkout.
In a 10-minute address, Warren told the students and staff that theirs and district residents’ voices matter, stressing the need for two-way conversations and the option for students to talk with two of their cohorts who serve on Warren’s student advisory council.
“However, we have to be orderly,” she said after the gathering, adding she didn’t hear about the walkout until that morning. “We can’t have chaos and confusion, disorder. We can’t have that and say on the other side we’re promoting safety. Interestingly enough, the big message is, yes, voices matter. Ultimately, we’ve got to decide what our priority is, and we’ve got to do what will solve the concerns we’re met with, and sometimes that means making hard decisions we don’t want to make. But this is also not one of those things or situations that just showed up today. We have some major challenges across our community that our entire community must address.
“Our school is basically a reflection of the community. So, this isn’t just about the school. Our city is going to have to do what it takes, and all factions of our community have to work well.”
Students were assigned to their third-period class after the walkout.
PARENT AND ALUMNA SPEAKS
Amanda Barron, a PBHS parent and 1989 graduate, said she heard beforehand a peaceful protest was being planned.
“From a parental point of view, I feel it was very noble of them to stand up for their rights because, after all, it is their life that is in concern right now,” Barron said. “They attend the school, and they should have a voice as to where they want to go. Sending them back to Jack Robey Junior High is like life. We don’t want to go backward. We always want to go forward. To implement a better solution, we should always strive to go forward, and that’s what they want to strive for, to go forward, not backward.”
Robey houses students in grades six through eighth and formerly served eighth and ninth grades. PBHS serves grades nine through 12 and will continue to operate separately from Dollarway High until the new campus is built.
Barron does not agree with Warren’s reasoning that temporarily relocating PBHS to Robey would provide a safer option for students.
“If you get involved with students and form a better bond with them, then you have to trust them,” Barron said. “There are ways you can lock the school down. You can’t drive your cars in here, and each [building] has an exit door. If you execute plans on the different buildings, it’s locked down. So, it’s no point in saying it’s an issue of safety. You can lock the schools down.”
Arkansas has seen at least three high school student bodies walk out of class in the past 32 days. On Feb. 28, students in North Little Rock protested the employment of a teacher accused of sexual abuse through posts on social media, according to television reports. That same week, a video surfaced of a Fordyce junior high football player bullying a teammate, leading to a sit-in inside the high school hallway.