Students leave class by the thousands
Young Coloradans make their voices heard by first using their feet
Colorado students as young as 8 years old briefly put aside their classroom worries Wednesday and walked out of their schools to protest the gun violence that looms over them daily.
From Columbine to Arapahoe high schools — both scenes of deadly school shootings — and to Front Range campuses beyond, thousands of students filed out at 10 a.m., joining their peers across the state and across the country to mark one month since 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Some yelled, some drew signs, while others openly prayed. Others urged their classmates to pressure politicians to take action to keep them safe.
“High school students are really starting to find their voice, and on this issue we are finding we got a big … huge voice,” said Sole Garcia, a South High School junior. “If we work together, we can do a lot of things. And guess what: One day soon we will all be voting.”
About 300 South High students participated in the 17-minute walkout, a tribute to the Parkland victims. Cameron Hebets, 10, and Finn Levine, 9, looked on while holding their own makeshift sign that they made at the urging of their mothers. Both attend a nearby elementary school that did not allow students to leave school for the walkout without permission from their parents.
“My mom told me this was important enough to watch this and make this sign,” Cameron said.
Some Denver-area high school students marched to the statehouse to demand changes in gun laws. Student organizers thought that if they showed up in big enough numbers both at the Capitol and around their own schools, they could pressure lawmakers to take action, South High senior Sophie Cardin said.
“We will no longer tolerate gun violence,” Cardin said. “We demand that action be taken to protect our life and education.”
Here’s a look at how students in some Denver-area schools participated in the walkout:
Columbine High School
At Columbine, where two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher in 1999, at least 100 students walked out at 10 a.m. Some carried red, white and blue balloons and huddled on the school’s soccer fields. Students also read the names of the students killed in the Columbine shooting.
Kaylee Tyner and Rachel Hill, 16-year-old juniors, strayed from the dozens of classmates who went back inside following the walkout. The teens wanted their message heard. They approached a group of journalists who had their microphones and pens at the ready.
“We’ve grown up watching more tragedies occur and continually asking, ‘Why? Why does this keep happening?’ ” Tyner said.
The history of their school weighs on them.
“Even though it’s been 19 years, nothing has changed in order to prevent this from happening again,” Hill said.
Tyner’s activism wasn’t stopping at her high school soccer field. She plans to travel to Washington, D.C., for a March 24 gun violence protest to keep the discussion rolling.
“I can vote in the next election and so can a lot of the students who are walk- ing out today,” Tyner said. “You better be ready for there to be a change because we’re coming to make a change.”
Arapahoe High School
Paul Gordon, 17 and Lucas Mederos, 17, two of the organizers behind a walkout with hundreds of students at Arapahoe in Centennial, said they protested to say that gun violence needs to end while also inspiring others to share their voices. More than a dozen neighbors, parents and grandparents cheered the students as they walked out.
In 2013, an Arapahoe student stormed into the school and fatally shot 17year-old Claire Davis. The gunman then killed himself.
“We want to support the national walkout movement,” Gordon said, saying the walkout wasn’t about this particular school but the nation. “We want to put pressure on our legislators.”
Leaving campus after the walkout ended, Centennial resident Emily Morten son, 17, and Highlands Ranchresident Danielle Littau, 17, said they were surprised more students didn’t participate.
Littau suspected that many students didn’t have opinions on the matter. But she felt it was important to go. She has experienced death in the past either with her family or friends and felt empathy for the students at Parkland.
Cherokee Trail High School
At Cherokee Trail in the southeastern corner of Aurora, several hundred students walked to soccer fields and listened as a walkout organizer read off the names and ages of all 17 Parkland victims.
The students alternated between shouting protest chants — “Hey hey, NRA, how many kids have you killed today” — and listening to speeches from classmates who implored them to contact their senators about gun control.
“We appreciate you guys walking out, but this is just the beginning. This won’t be over until Congress takes action,” said organizer Ramsha Ahmad, 17.
“Remember: Our lives matter,” said fellow organizer Emily Berton, 18. “Our voices matter.”
Denver Post staffers Holly Graham, Peyton Garcia, Jesse Paul and Alex Scoville contributed to this story.