Students ‘walk out’ in solidarity
About 4,000 participate in events supported by area schools
One-by-one, orange balloons floated off into the sky Wednesday at Antelope Union High School, one for each victim of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. Antelope students, along with about 4,000 others in public and private high schools in Yuma County, joined hundreds of thousands of their peers across the U.S. in a show of solidarity against hate and violence for National School Walkout Day.
Each high school’s demonstration was a bit different, not only locally, but across the U.S. as well. Kofa and Gila Ridge students wore orange shirts. San Luis students read the names of the 17 victims killed Feb. 14 in Parkland. Yuma Catholic students recited the Lord’s Prayer.
At Cibola, students demonstrated for 17 minutes, listening to a speech from junior Alexa Lardin, and then walking the track for the remainder of the memorial, with a moment of silence for the last minute.
“First of all, my heart goes out to all the innocent people that have passed away at schools or anywhere else because of weapons,” Lardin said in a prepared statement to her peers. “With Yuma being a small town, I hope this at least inspires students to care about what is going on and maybe see that other people care too and are also aware.”
At Antelope, student body president Zevin Gamez spoke and afterward others said a few words at an open mic, said Jeff Peters, Antelope student council activity director.
“Ours was a remembrance ceremony and the tone was sincere,” Peters said.
Antelope’s student council decorated a large poster with the words “Antelope Union High School Stands With Stoneman Douglas High School,” and students came up after the service and signed their names, Peters said. The poster will be sent to the Florida school.
Cibola Principal Tim Brienza said it
was important that students had a choice in whether or not to participate. He also noted that students and administrators worked together to make the event happen, but that the movement was student-led. Students were not punished for attending the demonstration.
One theme that rang throughout local student speeches was exercising their right to vote, which many high schoolers will do for the first time this year.
“Also be inspired to vote,” Lardin said. “Don’t be shy to stand up for what is right and speak up against hate. I will be able to vote at the next election, as will some of you, and this is all we can do. We can vote and encourage others to vote.”
Kofa speaker Ralph Ferguson, a senior, said in his remarks that today’s demonstrations weren’t an attack on the Second Amendment but mainly a way to commemorate the lives lost in Parkland.
It was also a way “to spread awareness and to let classmates and everyone know that we have a voice, that we are not just apathetic teenagers, that we are interested in making not only our schools but also our nation and cities a better place and not only for us but for those to come,” he said.
In Phoenix, student leaders met with legislators in the Arizona House, according to The Associated Press.
Students said they want Arizona legislators to ban “bump stocks,” which can be attached to a semi-automatic rifle to allow the gun’s action to mimic automatic fire. They also want lawmakers to expand background checks for people purchasing guns and more school counselors to help students facing mental health crises that can lead to violence.
At a House session later in the afternoon, several lawmakers recognized student activists sitting in the gallery. They read statements the teens had written about why they are advocating for gun reforms and praised them for their civic engagement.
Locally, nearly all the area’s high schools participated in the event, including Yuma Catholic. Centennial Middle School also held a school safety event.
“It was an amazing day of watching our students practice using their voice in a most positive way to speak in a way to celebrate solidarity and to look to make a difference in their future,” said Superintendent Gina Thompson later Wednesday evening at the district governing board meeting. Thompson attended the demonstration at San Luis High earlier in the day, where she estimated about 2,000 students solemnized the occasion on the football field.
“I hope changes happen but it starts with the youth because as you always hear people say, we are the future,” Cibola junior Lardin said. “Love not hate.”