‘Am I next?’
Across Wisconsin, students take part in National School Walkout against gun violence
There was no sound but for the names of the dead as they were read over the loudspeaker.
On Wednesday, more than 1,200 students and staff circled the football field at Milwaukee’s Rufus King High School, part of the National School Walkout intended to honor those killed in a mass shooting at a Florida high school last month and to call on lawmakers to restrict access to the deadly weapons that made that possible.
The scene, or some iteration of it, played out at schools across Wisconsin and the nation — in cities and suburbs and rural communities, in red and blue states — in what is being described as an unprecedented civil action by young people demanding a change and vowing to make it happen at the polls.
“Newsflash, this is not an adult issue,” Rufus King student government leaders Morgan Coleman and Ruth Fetaw shouted into a megaphone in a spoken word presentation after the march honoring the 17 killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14.
“They say we are not activists. That we cannot be agents of change. But on behalf of the 17 lives that were lost ... we say enough is enough.”
Rufus King was among at least 60 schools across the state where students planned to take
part in the National School Walkout promoted by the Youth Empower arm of the National Women’s March. Nationally, students at an estimated 3,000 schools took part, according to a report by the USA Today Network.
In Wisconsin, students led demonstrations in every corner of the state, from metro Milwaukee to rural Rhinelander, often as police officers kept watch nearby.
Walkouts were staged at several Milwaukee Public Schools campuses, including North and South Division, Bay View, Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education high schools,
“I just hope the gun violence ends. Innocent kids should deserve to live their lives.”
Dasani Cherry, 15, North Division High School student
Highland Community School and MacDowell Montessori, among others.
“I just want to know, am I next?” said Dasani Cherry, 15, who was among about 200 students to walk out at Milwaukee’s North Division High School.
“I just hope the gun violence ends,” she said. “Innocent kids should deserve to live their lives.”
In suburban Milwaukee, students chanted “enough is enough” and “no more silence and gun violence” at Oconomowoc High School, where senior Will Grosspietch said it was likely the first protest for most of the students who took part.
About 350 students at Whitefish Bay Bay High School gathered at the football stadium where they read the names of the 17 victims killed in Parkland. And an estimated 500 middle- and highschoolers converged at Shorewood High School, where senior Katie Eder implored them to do more than just walk out of class.
She urged students to write their legislators asking them to enact gun control measures, including a ban on assault rifles and strengthening background checks.
“When adults have said nothing can be done, the students are finding a way,” said Eder, who announced plans for a 50-mile march from Madison to Janesville on March 24. “It is our time as the next generation to recognize the power that we have and join our voices together to call for real and visible change.”
Elsewhere around the state, 75 students and supporters staged a die-out outside of Marshfield High School. Students staged a sit-in outside of Bayport High School in Suamico.
At De Pere High School near Green Bay, white flowers were set on 17 empty chairs as senior Sophie Bucholz, her voice cracking, read brief biographies of those killed in Parkland.
“It could have been me,” freshman Faith Roska told students and supporters outside Menasha High School, where she read the names of the Florida victims. “It could have been my teachers. It could have been any classroom.”
Some schools scheduled assemblies in lieu of walkouts.
In Germantown, rather than a walkout, about 250 students gathered for speeches about mental health and school safety in an assembly that mostly steered clear of politics.
Arianna Neal, a senior who helped organize the event, said students initially planned to walk out but switched gears after meeting with administrators. The assembly, she said, was a chance for students to come together around their shared desire for safety.
“We felt like we were more unified, when usually it’s red and blue here. It was great to come together,” she said.
Events were canceled at at least three schools because of concerns about security.
A Pewaukee student was arrested in connection with an alleged threat that forced the district to cancel classes there Wednesday.
A rumor about a potential school shooting at Mukwonago High School during the walkout prompted the Mukwonago district to cancel student participation in the event, according to a post on the district’s Facebook page.
And the walkout at Milwaukee’s Pulaski High School was canceled after police received a report of a person with a weapon. One person was taken into custody, though no weapon was found. It was unclear if the incident was tied to the walkouts.
Local residents, and in some cases politicians, turned out to support students in several communities.
“Maybe they will accomplish something Congress is unable to accomplish,” said Mike Phillips, who attended the walkout at Green Bay West High School.
Phillips lost a friend in last year’s deadly Las Vegas shooting. And while he supports the right to own rifles, shotguns and handguns, he wants Congress to ban semi-automatic rifles.
“We are so proud,” Brian Verdin told students at Rufus King, where he graduated in 1970. “Back in the day we marched for black history books; we marched to end the Vietnam War. And we did make a difference. We did help change the world. And you’re doing the same thing today,” he said.
In a solemn show of solidarity, the Rufus King students marched in silence as the names of those killed in Parkland echoed from the PA system.
MPS Superintendent Darienne Driver, who walked out with the Rufus King students, said the moment filled her with both sadness and pride.
“My students, they took the lead on this from start to finish . .... They’ve been doing activities all week, and this was happening all over the city,” she said. “I’m very proud of my students, and I appreciate that enough people are finally paying attention to this issue.”
In the weeks since the Florida shooting, Parkland students have mobilized in support of gun control measures, taking on the powerful National Rifle Association and calling out lawmakers who benefit from its largesse. And they have seen unprecedented success persuading some corporations to cut ties with the gun lobby and Florida lawmakers to pass a $400 million gun-control and school-safety bill.
“They told us that we were too young ... that we didn’t know enough about what was going on to have a say. But looking around me today, I can see that something has changed. Our government is shifting, our people are shifting, our students are ... saying we can’t stand for this any longer,” said King senior Kiva Carman-Frank.
Contributors to this report include Journal Sentinel reporters Karen Herzog, Jesse Garza, Sarah Hauer, Mike Johnson and Ashley Luthern; Now News Group reporters Alec Johnson, Steven Martinez, Tyler Langan, Jeff Rumage, Darryl Enriquez, Jim Riccioli, Jane Ford-Stewart, Erik Hanley and Karen Pilarski; and USA Today Network-Wisconsin reporters Rory Linnane, Ed Berthiaume, Karl Ebert and Jaime Rokus.