Schools allowing student walkouts

Denver-area school districts are marking Wednesday’s national student walkout protest of gun violence by acknowledging free-speech rights but setting guidelines for safety.

Campus gun violence has particular resonance for students in Colorado in light of deadly high school shootings over the past two decades, including at Columbine, Arapahoe and Platte Canyon.

Students plan to leave their schools at 10 a.m. for 17 minutes, one minute for each of the 17 students and staff members killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14 in Parkland, Fla.

Denver Public Schools said it is providing “safe places” for

middle and high school students to express their views about guns in American society. Middle school students will not be allowed to walk off campus unless a parent or guardian gives written permission.

DPS high school students will be encouraged to stay on campus but are allowed to leave if they choose. DPS also is working with Denver police to monitor planned walkouts and to ensure student safety.

On Tuesday, Adams 12 Five Star Schools released a statement warning that the district “has received a high volume (over 40 ... ) of anonymous Safe2Tell reports” about threats of violence toward high school students who walk out Wednesday.

The statement said other school districts in the Denver area are experiencing similar threats.

“There are rumors and/ or indications that students will be vulnerable to violence if they participate,” Adams 12 Superintendent Chris Gdowski said Tuesday night.

The numerous threats are not specific, either in nature or the person who is making the threats, Gdowski said. School officials discussed the possibility of canceling classes but de- cided against it because of the unspecific nature of the threats. Still, officials felt compelled to share their knowledge of the threats with parents, who then can decide whether to send students to school or whether to participate in the walkout.

“It is troubling to me, and very sad, that we live in a time when students want to come together and express themselves about this violent world, yet they are not able to do that because of additional threats and rifts out there now,” Gdowski said.

Adams 12 also has concerns about students leaving campuses and perhaps spreading security details too thin if the walkouts head in different or multiple directions.

Jefferson County School Superintendent Jason Glass said in a districtwide message that he expects students to be respectful of one another and of staffers and to “express their opinions in a responsible and peaceful manner, to communicate with school leadership and to put learning first.”

Glass added that unless a school has invited families and the community to join activities Wednesday, only students and staffers will be allowed on school property for safety reasons.

Most of the walkouts will be at high schools, but some middle schools are also participating, including Skinner Middle in Denver.

Eighth-graders Ada Youngstrom, 13, Rachel Zizmor, 14, and Lilly Lemme, 14, have been planning the walkout at Skinner. They have met with the school’s administrators and police, mapped out routes, designated student leaders for the march, created coordinated signs and designed stickers to wear.

Not everyone in the school has to participate in the walkout. Students can opt to stay in the school’s auditorium. In fact, Zizmor said they would prefer that students stay put if they don’t truly believe in their cause.

All three said they’ve had the realization that a shooting could happen in their school, and they are scared.

“So many 14-year-olds were killed,” Lemme said. “Well, I’m a 14-year-old. That could happen to me.”