A show of strength
Students nationwide join walkout for gun control
Students, angry and empowered, walked out of classrooms across California on Wednesday. They poured out of schools in Alaska, Maine, Texas, Georgia and cities and towns in between. They were joined by their parents, teachers and neighbors — all in an effort to enact stricter gun laws.
It was one of the biggest shows of force by the nation’s youngest generation, and throughout the Bay Area, thousands of school children walked out of class at exactly 10 a.m. to protest school shootings and honor the 17 victims of last month’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Similar scenes played out at schools across the country, as speeches were made and moments of
silence were held. Young people raised signs demanding “Books not bullets.” And they vowed to vote as soon as they could to enact stricter gun control laws and elect lawmakers who will do more than offer thoughts and prayers.
It was the largest student-led protest in recent memory, perhaps rivaling previous generations’ marches for civil rights and walkouts over the Vietnam War.
As mass shootings have become commonplace, so have protests and calls for action, including requests for stronger background checks and limits on the capacity of high-powered rifles. But the uproar would always subside — until the next time.
This time, politicians and historians say, momentum only seems to be building.
“These students have not stopped — they’ve been relentless,” said history and communications Professor Nolan Higdon, an expert in youth movements and digital culture at Cal State East Bay. “This fits in with the history of the country. The way change is made is the bottom up.”
Since the shooting, Parkland students and youth across the country have forced a renewed debate on gun control by putting pressure on politicians to act. Florida legislators passed a bill Friday that raises the age required to purchase a gun from 18 to 21, a move denounced by the National Rifle Association.
And, as students across the country walked out, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a measure that would provide funding for school violence prevention strategies, although critics say the bill does little to limit access to guns.
Students across the country said the walkout was just the beginning of a movement to prevent school gun violence, which includes registering young people to vote, lobbying legislators and eventually running for office.
“We’re very tired of having our fellow students across the nation die, and seeing nothing being done about it,” said Ben McLaren, 17, a senior at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco. “This time we’re trying to keep the momentum going.”
Students at both the School of the Arts and the Academy San Francisco, which share a campus, walked out of class at 10 a.m. They gathered in the courtyard for speeches, a moment of silence and a choir performance of the song “Prayer for the Children.” The names of the Parkland victims were read aloud while people stood in silence.
From the suburban spreads of Fremont and Walnut Creek to the urban cores of Richmond and Oakland, high school students raised their fists and their voices in solidarity to denounce gun violence.
At El Cerrito High School, most of the 1,430 students jammed into the central quad for a protest. They sang “Shine,” a song written by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, and wore orange, the color adopted by gun control advocates.
“Enough is enough,” Claire Sterling, 17, told the crowd. “All week at lunch we are going to be in Room C200 writing letters to our representatives. Please join. It may not seem like a lot, but everything matters.”
Anneli Kuch, a junior at Oakland Technical High School, said she was fed up with school shootings. On her orange shirt, she safety-pinned a sheet of paper.
“Senators & representatives,” it read, “start valuing our lives over the money you get from the NRA! If not we will vote you out.”
At El Cerrito High, teacher Pat Jimenez, 55, sat in his class after the rally and reflected on the moment.
“I was a little kid during the Vietnam War and during the civil rights movement, and I teach American history, so I appreciate movements, and I haven’t seen anything like this since that time period,” he said. “I think it’s a really seminal moment among the students who I work with every day.”
The Bay Area walkouts followed those in New York, Houston, Denver and other cities across the country as the clock struck 10 a.m. in each time zone.
In Parkland, the teenage survivors of the mass shooting walked out to the sound of helicopters overhead, bringing back vivid memories of Feb. 14, said David Hogg, one of the student organizers advocating for government action to end school gun violence.
“Nothing about this is going to be easy,” he said in a livestreamed video posted on Twitter. “We have to continue to fight for our lives. Each and every one of these individuals is a person that could have died that day. I could have died that day.”
This common sentiment has brought students together and created a new consciousness, something necessary to bring about change, Higdon said.
“All these students go into classrooms and fear they could be locked in a classroom and sprayed with bullets,” he said.
But the students now seem to have numbers on their side.
There are 92 million Americans who were born between 1990 and 2004, and they represent the biggest generation in history. As of this year, the nation’s youngest adults will become a third of the country’s voting population, Higdon said.
Teenagers and young adults could not only become a force on the streets, but also the ballot box, said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
“They’ve found their voice — that’s perhaps the most important thing,” he said, joining students during the walkout at his alma mater, McClatchy High School in Sacramento.
Imagine what could happen if young people realize the power of their vote, Becerra added. It would throw politicians “into a tizzy.”
“If young folks think about it, they can make money irrelevant in the electoral process,” Becerra said. “If all of a sudden young people come out — wow, game changer.”
And that’s exactly the plan, students said Wednesday, as they gathered on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall.
Josiah Kelly, student body president at the Academy, said that beyond the protests, students are trying to form an anti-gun coalition. Partnering with civic leaders will be the next step toward lasting change.
“People just lose momentum, you know? People lose interest in things. Even when they’re really important,” Kelly said. “Things do lose steam, so pushing this really hard and promoting it and motivating people to just keep on fighting and keep on resisting is a really huge thing for all of us.”