Daily Sitka Sentinel

Gun Violence Draws Divergent Protests at Sitka High

By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
    On one side of the Sitka High School parking lot students sang the National Anthem, on the other they shouted slogans to distant legislators: “No more silence, end gun violence.”
    Roughly half of Sitka High’s 340 student body took part in the national wave of activism protesting gun violence and calling for gun law reform by holding a walkout at 10 a.m. today, the 19th anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.

    “It is our time to take a stand on what we believe is important,” junior Ella Lubin said through a hand-held loud speaker. “We are the future of our nation. Education is what fuels us and teaches us. In order to guarantee a successful future for our country we need to feel safe in our schools. We need to protect our education, not just from budget cuts, but from bullies and bullets alike.”
    The Sitkans joined thousands of their peers across the country in similar student-led protests called “National School Walkout,” aimed at bolstering the discussion about gun-control measures.
    Lubin and classmate Joe Pate organized their demonstration along the lines of more gun control. Their message for lawmakers was, while they understand gun control is a complex topic, they want to know they will be safe in school.
    “Hopefully, this walkout will send a message to our legislators,” Lubin said. “A message that shows Sitka students care about their future and schools.”
    Added Pate, “It is great on both sides that kids are standing up for what they believe in. Standing up for a cause whether it is against or for our message but it is good to see that they are being active and contributing to the social dialogue.”
    Senior Anders Marius felt it was important to hear both sides of the issue and organized a second walkout.
    “We are in favor of a solution to school safety that doesn’t impose on constitutional rights,” Marius said as students near him sang. “I ultimately didn’t want to do this. I thought a march was going to be divisive and clearly it was, as we have two separate factions forming. But I felt that their strong gun control message warranted a response. I didn’t want to sit down and simply stay quiet. I wanted to give those students an opportunity to speak their voice who disagreed rather than being forced, in a sense, to march with the majority. My goal was simply to provide an avenue for the other side of the issue to try and keep it balanced. This topic has multiple sides to it. My goal here today is that people try to look with an open mind. Honestly, the ideal solution could be a combination of local effort such as more lock-down drills, such as better student and staff training to fix the solution, and perhaps gun legislation too. What is important to keep in mind, too, is that both of these marches are attempting to foster a better school safety message, we are united in that same venture.”
    While about 80 of her school mates stood to her left and about 70 to her right, SHS junior Avery Voron stood in the middle looking out, conflicted on which peer group to stand with.
    “I believe we should control what is happening with gun rights but I don’t believe we should take away our rights,” Voron said. “We should maybe have background checks but I also believe we should have the right to bear arms, just not in schools. I just don’t have enough information to make a clear decision so I am just going to stand in the middle and see what happens. At this time I just want to support my peers and respect their opinions.”
    After 17 minutes, one for each person killed February in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the students filed back into classes. The 17-minute format of today’s demonstration was the same as the school walkouts on March 14 organized by survivors of the Parkland school shooting. Sitka schools weren’t in session on that date because of spring break.
    Since then the massive March for Our Lives rally was held in Washington, D.C., along with marches in cities across the country calling for action against gun violence.
    Sitka High Principal Laura Rogers said today’s walkout was not school-sanctioned, but the district is taking a neutral position.
    “The school is not encouraging kids one way or the other,” Rogers said prior to the walkout. “We would be fine if they chose to stay in their seats and continue on with class, and we will support their exercising their First Amendment rights if they chose to leave.”
    Rogers said there would have been a consequence if a student chose to leave the school grounds after the march because that would no longer be a free speech issue but a school attendance issue.
    “Students have political speech rights that don’t stop when they walk through the doors of the school,” Rogers said. “What they are not allowed to do is provide a material in substantial disruption to the education of other students and their own rights can be somewhat limited if it starts to infringe even upon their own.”
    Rogers said if it had appeared that the walkout would have a negative impact there would have some kind of a consequence.
    “They can go outside for 17 minutes and not negatively impact their peers who choose to stay,” Rogers said. “We are not going to jump in and do anything to limit that. Seventeen minutes is not going to make or break their academic day.”
    The April 20 National School Walkout idea came from Lane Murdock, a high school sophomore in Ridgefield, Connecticut, about 20 miles from Newtown, the site of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
    The National School Walkout website says students are asking lawmakers to support:
    • Legislation to strengthen background checks.
    • Legislation to allow family members to request the issuance of a gun violence prevention warrant for those they fear may pose a danger to themselves or others.
    • Bans on bump stocks.
    • Raising minimum age to 21 to buy an assault rifle like the AR-15.
    Nationwide, more than 2,500 schools registered for today’s walkouts, leaving their classrooms at 10 a.m. in each time zone. At each destination they would pause for 13 seconds of silence - one second for everyone killed in the Columbine school shooting on April 20, 1999.