Students walk out, call for an end to gun violence
In small groups and by themselves, students from Cordova High School filed out the back door of their school Thursday afternoon and past an area of the pavement cordoned off by yellow caution tape.
Inside the taped perimeter were the chalk outlines of 17 bodies, each stained red to represent the 17 people killed at a Parkland, Florida, high school on Valentine’s Day.
On the football field, most of the school of 2,000 students sat or stood around the perimeter for 17 minutes of silence. Every minute, the name of one person killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was read aloud and an orange balloon released into the air.
The demonstrations were part of walkouts led by Shelby County Schools students throughout the district Thursday. Students at 24 high schools led optional protests at the end of the school day, a day before the planned National School Walkout across the U.S.
At the end of the event, Cordova students with personal ties to gun violence shared their stories.
Deja Chatman lost her cousin in a shooting at a gas station two years ago.
“We come to school to be safe,” she said. “We don’t expect to be gunned down. It shouldn’t be this way.”
The National Walkout Day, timed to the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting on Friday, is the second student-led walkout calling for stricter gun control and safer schools.
SCS students decided to move their walk up a day after hearing Columbine victims’ families had asked the walkouts not be done on Friday. Students presented their plans for the walkout to SCS Superintendent Dorsey Hopson, who endorsed the idea and promised no students would be disciplined for leaving class. Most schools participating held structured events led by students.
Several suburban districts will have events Friday. In Collierville Schools, students will be allowed to leave class for 17 minutes. Arlington Community Schools students have a 30-minute event planned.
Cordova senior Essience Jones said she had one goal when she helped organize the event Thursday.
“We’re tired of our school being on the news for the wrong reasons,” she said.
She wanted the world to see students standing up against violence.
Jayden Gilliam, a junior, said just because what happened in Parkland hasn’t happened in Cordova doesn’t mean violence doesn’t affect their peers every day whether it’s domestic, part of a gang or bullying.
The personal stories, Jayden said, helped drive that message home.
“I think if people were listening, they feel differently about it,” Jayden said.
Two female students became emotional talking about their boyfriends, Jereme Jones and Devonte Taylor, former Cordova High students, who were shot and killed together in a car in a Cordova park in February.
Several students carried homemade signs, some with drawings of guns with lines through them, and others with expressions of support for students who might be struggling.
Kelsey Olivier, a sophomore, carried a sign she made that read, “No to Guns, Yes to Life.” She hoped schools would have more events that highlighted the voices of students.
“We can get our word out that we don’t think (violence) is OK,” Kelsey said. “We should feel safe.”
Students from across the district collected ideas Thursday about ways to stop gun violence and make schools safer overall. A group will present those ideas to the school board Tuesday night.
Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer.pignolet@ commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @JenPignolet.