Students join nationwide walkout

On a chilly Wednesday morning several students were setting up a row of 17 chairs in front of Glacier High School. Posted on the chairs were the names of the 17 victims murdered in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

At 10 a.m., the area in front of the school filled quickly as Glacier students pooled out of the main entrance doors and gathered in front of, and around the chairs. At the same time, high school students throughout the valley were also participating in a national walkout.

Glacier student organizer Harrison Rennie stood at a podium and welcomed his fellow classmates.

“As you know students in thousands of high schools across the country are walking out today as a sign of unity against gun violence. We’re not standing up here today to deliver a partisan message or even one centered around politics,” Rennie said.

“As you know one month ago today a gunman entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, with a semi-automatic assault rifle and proceeded to kill 14 students and three staff members. We are here to remember and mourn the lives of those 17 people killed in their school, represented by the 17 empty chairs in front of us.”

Over the next 17 minutes students in the valley and the nation remembered the lives lost.

At Glacier, students read brief biographies about the lives of the people killed in the Florida shooting and played a song written and performed by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students.

Other local high schools also held memorials for the victims.

Concluding Glacier’s memorial, student organizer Abigail Roston thanked classmates for participating and reminded them to hug their parents, cherish their friends, be kind and courteous and “to not forget these stories because it could happen anywhere.”

“While these past few minutes have been impactful, we are looking now for some change in this country,” Roston said. “Gun safety is not an issue that will be solved through a singular restriction or one new law. There are problems on many levels that lead to these mass shooting events and that’s why we’re here.

“But what’s being done is not enough. Our momentum cannot stop here. Look around and get excited because we’re in this together. We need to see policies passed and not just discussed. Students, staff and administrators deserve a safe learning environment free from fear.

“Don’t let this event be the last step you take,” she said, asking students to call and write senators and representatives. “Most importantly to the seniors who are 18, you have to vote.”

Plans are in the works to encourage and assist students eligible to vote to register in the coming weeks at Glacier, according to Rennie.

After 17 minutes had passed, students returned to classes. The empty chairs remained.

Rennie and Roston, both seniors, talked about how students went about planning the event, why it coincided with, and how it differed from, the #Enough National School Walkout originated by the Women’s March Youth Empower organization. The two also shared their thoughts on the national conversations going on regarding gun violence and school safety.

Initially, groups of students interested in participating, but unsure how to go about planning, began meeting and defining a vision.

“We came up with a mission statement. We came up with two verbs ‘commemorate’ and ‘advocate’ that led [to] what we were doing and from there we decided that it was more important to read the bios and do justice to the students’ lives than to try and push a message or specific policy,” Roston said.

For student organizers and administrators, Wednesday’s priorities were keeping the event nonpolitical and not push specific legislation. But for some students, such as Columbia Falls High School senior Braxton Shewalter, showing support of gun rights was an important element in countering the #Enough National Walkout platform he felt was strongly anti-gun. Shewalter organized a memorial in Columbia Falls that remembered the victims, while not blaming guns.

But although not all participants were advocating for the same “priority policies” as the #Enough National Walkout, local students utilized the momentum of the national movement to commemorate the lives of the people killed and open up conversation on school safety between teachers and peers on a local level.

Roston said she understands the specific policies the organization advocates for wouldn’t work in Montana, and likely nationwide, and focusing on it would be restrictive.

“So if we were to narrow the scope it would just be narrowing the dialogue. What we wanted to do was have those open conversations,” Roston said.

Planning the walkout at Glacier has led to many conversation between teachers and students — some difficult.

“I think myself, personally, it’s going to take not only reform and legislation, but just the dialogue to happen between teachers and students ... we’re going to school in a new era where your teachers are performing a duty that isn’t just simply about education, but they’re becoming the people who are going to risk their lives to save us,” Roston said, noting that until those difficult conversations occur in combination with legislative reform will she feel safer in school.

As lockdown drills become as commonplace as fire drills, those conversations have started to unfold. Rennie recalled one after a recent lockdown drill at the high school.

“Afterward the teachers did some debriefing with us and they had that discussion of what it would look like if there was a shooter in the building and when it would be appropriate to run; when it would be appropriate to barricade the classroom door,” Rennie said.

“I even had teachers who said things like, ‘I would be willing to be the first one to go and even if I’ve been shot that doesn’t mean I’m dead.’ That’s just a really difficult thing to hear from your teachers in the classroom, but I think it’s important that we’re aware of this as this is the current reality that we have in our schools,” he said.

Even if the two students have different opinions on politics or proposed gun reform policies — they agree that arming teachers in schools is not a viable solution to protecting schools from gun violence.

“When they go to school to become a teacher and when they signed up for these jobs they weren’t agreeing to take a bullet for a classroom full of students,” Rennie said.

Roston recently returned from Washington, D.C., where she was selected to represent Montana during Washington Week, March 3-10, through the United States Senate Youth Program. It was during this time that she met a student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“The largest takeaway from her really was that it can happen anywhere,” Roston said, whether students attend public or private school, or whether people perceive their community as safe.

Roston and Rennie think that after decades of mass school shootings, the momentum of the current movement stems from the high school survivors who rallied soon after the tragic shooting and spoke out publicly.

Roston asked for students to keep motivated.

“Even if your school only had 50 kids at your rally or walkout, that doesn’t matter. It’s still 50 kids, or 10 kids, willing to speak out,” Roston said.

“Understand you’re not alone in this movement. Other high schoolers across the country are fighting for our safety in schools and that’s what it’s coming down to,” she said.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.