Wow!  What a whirlwind of a week.  After the mass-shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018, several students approached my colleagues and me about how to take on the issue of gun violence in schools and on the streets.  They wanted to walk out of school to protest and they were very serious about influencing gun legislation.  Admittedly, this is one of my proudest moments as a history teacher: these students listened.  They wanted to use their rights and privileges as American citizens to demand change where they feel change is necessary.  I cannot emphasize enough the importance of civic education in the history classroom… but that is for another blog post.

With guidance, our students executed their walkout today, the 20th anniversary of the shooting at Columbine.  One of the stipulations of helping them to organize their walkout was research: the kids had to understand what they were protesting.  We didn’t want a bunch of kids leaving school just for the sake of leaving school.   Their participation and the participation of their classmates had to be meaningful.  Thus, their tasks began.  Each student organizer, ranging from fourth through eighth grades, read.  They read and they read and they wrote and they wrote.  They read articles, they read books, they read others’ blogs and then they wrote to our head of campus, they wrote to other students, and they wrote to faculty.  To convey the information they learned along the way, many student organizers, in conjunction with several faculty members, planned 30-minute workshops for the afternoon of the walkout.  Our middle school students are going to inform our school community in a series of optional workshops to help others decompress after the walkout and figure out next-steps in fighting for gun control legislation.  Walkout workshop topics students planned include: “The Pen is Mightier than the Gun: How to Write to Government Representatives,” “Get Involved: Social Action,” “Social Media for Change,” “I Love Me: How to Be Kind to Yourself,” and “Gun Violence in the US.”  There are also 11 more workshops planned for this afternoon by students who care for students who are interested.

You might be wondering about those in our community who are not supportive of gun control in any form or who chose not to participate.  The ideas and feelings of those students and teachers were taken into careful consideration.  We arranged an option for students who did not want to walk out today to go to study hall.  We expressed several times that not walking out with the organizers did not make a statement.  We gave voice to those who disagreed: they were welcome at sign making to make their own signs, they were welcome at the walkout, and they were welcome to express their points of view in appropriate ways.  We made sure our organizers understand that everyone’s first amendment rights matter (so long as no one was inciting violence or spreading hate).

To further inspire and inform their school community, students also ran a sign-making workshop yesterday for any student interested in walking out today.  They set parameters for school-appropriate signs and got to work.  The only thing they needed from us was money for supplies and supervision.  The STUDENTS helped other students express themselves and their beliefs.

Note: If you are interested in ways to help your students use their rights as Americans, or even interested in how to weave civics into your American history classroom, please contact me.  I’m happy to help.