Local students set to walk out today

Movement demands action to stop gun violence

Yuma County students will join their peers across the nation today in supporting the National School Walkout, a solidarity movement to “demand Congress take action to stop gun violence,” national organizers wrote on their Facebook page.

Yuma students in both public and private high schools will join in the movement, school officials said.

Each event will look different across the country, said Eric Patten, communications director for the Yuma Union High School District.

“I think it began as a suggestion that at 10 a.m. students would walk out of their classroom and sit in the hall for 17 minutes,” he said of the initial call to action. The 17 minutes alludes to the number of students killed in the Parkland, Fla., school shooting last month.

The Diocese of Tucson issued a news release for its schools that are participating in the show of solidarity, one of which is Yuma Catholic.

“Students attending Catholic High Schools in the Diocese of Tucson will participate as young men and women of faith in the national protest of gun violence,” the diocese said in its statement.

Patten said that students at several campuses sought information about the movement from school offices, and they have been leading the effort to mark the day somehow.

Three of Yuma Union’s campuses will be holding events: San Luis, Cibola and Kofa. Each campus will individualize its walkout; some campuses will read the names of shooting victims and others will remain silent.

“That’s why I think the word ‘protest’ is not used in the national student walkout day message, because ... from what I have seen or heard from two of the campuses for sure, is that it’s more of a way of honoring the Parkland students, to draw attention to violence in school,” Patten said.

At Yuma Catholic High School, 2100 W. 28th St., students will meet in the school quad area for prayer, the diocese said. The name of each victim in Florida will be read aloud, and students will pray the Lord’s Prayer for each person lost.

Bishop Edward J. Weisenburger will be among the students in Tucson’s diocese, participating at St. Augustine High School, the diocese noted. Catholic students will hold their prayerful solidarity against gun violence as part of the national events taking place.

“Our students here, as in other parts of our country, are dealing with the devastating gun violence at schools and communities across the nation,” Weisenburger said.

“We hope to assist them as they find their place as faithful

citizens of the United States and as they find their way of coping constructively against a problem that has become widespread. I am pleased that level thinking, combined with compassion, prayer and faith are elements of our students’ events on Wednesday.”

Patten said that students are being encouraged to peacefully assemble during the timeframe at their given campus.

“We are not (punishing) students who participate in the walkout within that constrained time frame,” Patten said, “the peaceful part of it is the key, I think, for students to maintain a peaceful demonstration.”