Awaiting students’ response
A church and local schools plan their reactions should area children join a national walkout in protest of gun violence.
Rome First United Methodist Church is opening its doors at 10 a.m. this morning for students and teachers taking part in the nationwide 17-minute school walkout to honor those killed at a Parkland, Florida, high school and call for action on gun control.
The Rev. Robert Brown said Tuesday he wasn’t sure if there will be any participants in the event at 202 E. Third Ave., but he wanted to make sure participants had a place to go and for them to have their voices heard in expressing their feelings of anxiety, anger or fear. It is also a place to continue the conversation on how to promote change to ensure a shooting like that at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Sandy Hook Elementary or Columbine High School does not happen again.
“Our doors will be open with the caveat that you must have a valid student ID to enter,” he said, adding there will be pizza and drinks, a study hall and prayer station. “If you choose to make this statement we stand with you.”
“Enough is enough,” Brown said of the shooting and failure to take action to protect kids. “Our statement is about school safety and communicating with students and their families that we’re a safe place. We hear you. We understand this is a complex issue. We understand you may be frightened.
“We’re not saying, ‘Oh, don’t worry about that because that hasn’t happened here,’” he said. “The school walkout is a small step.”
While some schools around Georgia and the nation have come out against students’ plans to participate in the walkout scheduled to start at 10 a.m., Floyd County Schools Superintendent John Jackson said “I don’t think we gain anything from quashing (it).”
Jackson said students have feelings and emotions they need to express, and moments like this can be a point where student leaders emerge. But this does not mean the system is “playing up” the walkout. However, “We’re also not going to stand in the door and bar them,” he continued.
On Monday, Jackson met with over a dozen members of the student advisory committee at the college and career academy. He said there were a few students planning to participate,
and support should be shown for them to make it into something positive. He only wished the walkout not be used as a time for kids to stand around and socialize or text.
Some have come out to describe the walkout and student expression as a challenge to school officials’ authority, but “it doesn’t challenge my authority if they ask those questions,” Jackson said. The great societal movements for civil rights or women voting rights all started with someone asking “maybe we
need to look at things a little bit differently,” he added.
Rome City Schools Superintendent Lou Byars said the principals are aware of the national walkout and will respond to student plans on a situational basis. The school system is not exercising a blanket response to students’ actions during the walkout, he added.