‘Don’t say your voice doesn’t matter’

Around the region, students demonstrate for safety in schools

Norwich Free Academy students filtered outside at 10 a.m. Wednesday, some chanting “Not one more!” as they traversed the plowed sidewalks of the campus.

Some held photos of the students and faculty killed in the Parkland, Fla., shooting, while others held signs reading, “Arms are for Hugging” and “End School Violence Now.”

“We were born into a world reshaped by the Columbine High School shooting of 1999,” NFA Senior Class President Brielle Jewell said, addressing her classmates. She continued on, “We discuss the possible threats to our school and safe steps that are necessary to provide a secure school environment for all of us. We express our concerns to those trusted adults when something seems off. And we have had enough.”

Following the demonstration, student organizers gathered in the library to discuss next steps, such as writing letters to lawmakers and inviting political leaders to the school to discuss ideas for curbing gun violence.

NFA was one of many high schools in the area to participate in the national school walkout on March 14, which marked one month since a shooter opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., killing 14 students and three staff members.

The district high schools in New London, East Lyme, Ledyard, Montville, Stonington and Groton each participated in a sanctioned walkout — or a gymnasium “walk-in” — as a show of solidarity and a call to action. Events also were scheduled for Lyme-Old Lyme High School and Waterford High School.

Tension in New London

A student-run and school-sanctioned event held in the gymnasium at New London High began with student speeches and the release of 17 red, heart-shaped balloons to honor the victims in the Parkland shooting.

The event turned a bit chaotic when a student member of the local group Hearing Youth Voices noted the presence of police officers in the hallway and told the hundreds of students gathered, “If you want to walk out, walk the (expletive) out.”

Most of the students headed for the doors — past school officials and

“Enough is enough. People are done with being shot,” said Iris Fosse-Ober, 18, a senior at Washburn High School in Minneapolis.

Some issued specific demands for lawmakers, including mandatory background checks for all gun sales and a ban on assault weapons like the one used in the Florida bloodbath.

While administrators and teachers at some schools applauded students for taking a stand — and some joined them — others threatened punishment for missing class.

As the demonstrations unfolded, the NRA responded by posting a photo on Twitter of a black rifle emblazoned with an American flag. The caption: “I’ll control my own guns, thank you.”

The protests took place at schools from the elementary level through college, including some that have witnessed their own mass shootings: About 300 students gathered on a soccer field at Colorado’s Columbine High, while students who survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack in 2012 marched out of Newtown High School in Connecticut.

In the nation’s capital, more than 2,000 high-school age protesters observed 17 minutes of silence while sitting on the ground with their backs turned to the White House. President Donald Trump was out of town.

The students carried signs with messages such as “Our Blood/Your Hands” and “Never Again” and chanted slogans against the NRA.

In New York City, they chanted, “Enough is enough!” In Salt Lake City, the signs read, “Protect kids not guns,” ‘‘Fear has no place in school” and “Am I next?”

At Eagle Rock High in Los Angeles, teenagers took a moment of silence as they gathered around a circle of 17 chairs labeled with the names of the Florida victims.

Stoneman Douglas High senior David Hogg, who has emerged as one of the leading student activists, livestreamed the walkout at the tragedy-stricken school on his YouTube channel. He said students couldn’t be expected to stay in class while there was work to do to prevent gun violence.

“Every one of these individuals could have died that day. I could have died that day,” he said.

In joining the protests, the students followed the example set by many of the survivors of the Florida shooting, who have become gun-control activists, leading rallies, lobbying legislators and giving TV interviews. Their efforts helped spur passage last week of a Florida law curbing access to assault rifles by young people.

Another protest against gun violence is scheduled in Washington on March 24, with organizers saying it is expected to draw hundreds of thousands.

But whether the students can make a difference on Capitol Hill remains to be seen.

Congress has shown little inclination to defy the powerful NRA and tighten gun laws, and Trump backed away from his initial support for raising the minimum age for buying an assault rifle to 21.

A spokeswoman for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, newly appointed head of a federal panel on school safety, said DeVos “gives a lot of credit to the students who are raising their voices and demanding change,” and “their input will be valuable.”

David Farber, a history professor at the University of Kansas who has studied social change movements, said it is too soon to know what effect the protests will have. But he said Wednesday’s walkouts were without a doubt the largest protest led by high school students in the history of the U.S.

“Young people are that social media generation, and it’s easy to mobilize them in a way that it probably hadn’t been even 10 years ago,” Farber said.