Students at area school districts stage walkout

Students at Mentor, Willoughby South and Eastlake North high schools took part in a planned school walkout on Feb. 21.

About 50 students from Mentor walked out at noon and 150 did so at 2 p.m.; and 150 students each at North and South walked out in protest of gun laws following the Feb. 14 Florida school shooting that took the lives of 17 students and teachers and left 14 others injured.

The walkouts at North and South high schools took place at noon.

“The students intended for the walkouts to last 17 minutes and as near as we can tell, they stuck to that timetable,” the Willoughby-Eastlake District reported.

The district, in anticipation of the event, had extra administrative staff on hand at both schools, and made the local police aware so that they could be available to assist and ensure student safety.

At North, the students peacefully walked one lap around the building and at South they

gathered quietly in front of the building, according to Superintendent Steve Thompson’s office.

According to the district, the walkouts at both schools involved students only and this was not a school sponsored or sanctioned event. Instead, this was an organic student-driven event.

“While it is certainly the right of our students to express their opinions, and conduct a peaceful protest, we did not believe it was in the best interest of student safety to have them exit the building.” Thompson said. “We are grateful that the students at North and South High were able to conduct

themselves in a professional manner, express their opinions regarding the recent shootings in Parkland, Florida, and return to their regular school day without incident.”

Mentor High School Principal Andy Fetchik was aware of the planned walkout and notified parents of it by letter.

“We understand our students’ right to protest peacefully, but we do not support the idea of students walking out of school to do so. Walking out of school is not in the best interest of student or staff safety,” Fetchik said in the Feb. 20 letter. “With that being said, we will do everything we can from an administrative standpoint, including asking for Mentor Police assistance, in keeping the students who do choose

to participate in tomorrow’s walkout as safe as possible.”

He also noted in the letter that the walkout is not endorsed by the school; students who choose to leave class would be responsible for any missing work and/ or assignments; and that classes would continue to be conducted even if some students leave.

Mentor Schools would not comment except to say in an email, “We were really hoping to not give this additional publicity because we do not want to encourage the students this was a good idea by giving it media attention. While we wholeheartedly share their concerns about violence, there are more thoughtful and productive ways to have their voices heard.”