LOCAL STUDENTS MAKE THEIR VOICES HEARD
Walkouts, in-school events are part of national call to end gun violence
Students at high schools across the Mid-Hudson Valley walked out of class Wednesday morning as part of a nationwide action to protest gun violence and honor the 17 people who died in a mass shooting at a Florida high school exactly one month ago.
Many local high schools — Kingston, Rhinebeck, Rondout Valley, Saugerties and Ellenville among them — held indoor events to accommodate the students who wanted to participate, but students at some schools left their buildings anyway.
The walkouts and other demonstrations generally began at 10 a.m., the same time as those across the county. Here’s a sampling of the local demonstrations.
Kingston
At Kingston High School, about 100 students walked out after a sanctioned 17-minute indoor event (one minute for each death in the Feb. 14 massacre in Parkland, Fla.) and congregated along Broadway, in front of the school, holding signs and chanting such slogans as “Guns down rise up.”
During the indoor portion of the Kingston event, members of the school’s Student Government read over the public-
address system the names of the 17 people who died in Parkland, along with some information about each.
The students who walked out of Kingston High School were asked to identity themselves upon re-entering the building. School officials said that was to prevent any nonstudents from getting in, though some students surmised it was a way for the school to know which students to punish for leaving the building. A school district representative did not respond to a requested response to that allegation.
Red Hook
In Red Hook, some 250 students left the high school building on West Market Street and walked to the quarter-mile center of town, defying district officials’ desire for a sanctioned demonstration that would include administrators.
“In the early planning stages, it seemed like everybody was in favor of a walkout including the administration ... but over the last two weeks or so, we started to realize that it was becoming more of an assembly than a walkout,” said student organizer Emily Shein, a senior.
“The participants and organizers of this walkout feel that to accomplish the goals of the national walkout ... having a public presence in town is something that was really important to accomplish the solidarity,” she said. “So walking out, even if it means getting detention or in-school suspension for a day, it’s something that’s important enough to us that willing to take that risk.”
Some Red Hook students carried photos of students who were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
“This is someone who was a senior in high school just like me, and that means something important to me,” Claire Dickson said of the photo she was holding.
The Red Hook rally including a voter registration effort for students who will be old enough to cast ballots this fall.
“On Nov. 6, let’s show people that 18-year-olds are not somebody to be ignored, somebody shuffled into an assembly,” said junior David Factor. “On Nov. 6 you have a chance to get rid of somebody who does not look out for your interest or the interest of hunters, but only the interest of the gun industry that profits on the deaths of children in schools.”
Saugerties
Saugerties High School senior Sumar Hart estimated 500 to 600 students participated in an inbuilding event on Wednesday. And she said student organizers took an active role getting classmates’ concerns to lawmakers.
“They had petitions to sign ... about gun legislation and increased mental health education in schools,” she said. “They had a banner for people to sign and write why they walked out . ... There really was a feeling of unity and everyone standing together . ... We’re the next generation moving up, and we want things to change.”
Photos from the Saugerties event, provided by Ulster BOCES, showed students gathered in the high school gym, writing on a banner, ringing chimes in memory of the Parkland victims and listing to their classmates speak.
Saugerties High School would not let a reporter into the building to cover the event.
Onteora
Onteora school district Superintendent Victoria McLaren said walkouts at the district’s Boiceville property included about 120 middle-senior high school students and 70 Bennett Elementary School students.
At the middle-high school, students carried orange ribbons to honor people who have died in mass shootings, McLaren said. Also, she said, “students were offered the opportunity to write notes of support to the students from Parkland.”
McLaren said administrators understood how important it was for students to air their concerns.
“We have a very passionate group of kids here,” she said. “We have really wonderful respectful kids here who felt like they needed to express themselves, and they worked with the administration to plan this event ... and I think they can be very proud of themselves for the way they organized and conducted the event.”
Rhinebeck
Rhinebeck High School 11th-grader Libby Mensch said the walkout at her school made clear the amount of concern shared by her classmates.
“It was really interesting hearing the opinions of students I might not normally talk to in dayto-day life here at Rhinebeck,” she said. “Everyone was reading names and biographies of the [Florida] students who were killed, and the teacher . ... It was real emotional, and a lot of students were crying.”
Mensch said the Florida massacre “changed the way we all feel about coming to school, and I also know that a lot of people are very angry about how gun laws are right now.”
Rhinebeck High School junior Amy Hanson said it also is important to recognize that warning signs about Florida suspect Nikolas Cruz were not properly addressed.
“The boy who did the shooting ... he [allegedly] had a history of physical violence, and no one really did anything about it,” she said. “... We should have more [treatment] facilities that are more accessible and reasonably priced.”
Rhinebeck High School would not let a reporter cover the event in person.