[Note: The following article was submitted to the Outpost by the editors of The Pepperbox, Arcata High School’s student newspaper. -AG]

Arcata High School students Maddie Lankarani, Nazalin Dickerson and Skaidra Pulley led today’s school walkout and march down to the Arcata Plaza | Photos: Andrew Goff

An estimated 300 local high school students walked out of second period just before 10 a.m. today. Students, teachers, and community members converged on the Plaza to support the #enough movement and call for gun control and safety in American schools. Students from Arcata High, McKinleyville High, NPA, and St. Bernard’s joined around 3,000 other schools participating in the walkouts nationwide. Teen activists organized the walkout in response to the recent Parkland Shooting on February 14th at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 14 students and three faculty members lost their lives to a former student with an semi-automatic weapon.

“Because the issue of guns, whether it’s in the schools or just in society of ours in the United States, has been an issue for me for a long long time, I just want to be in solidarity with young people who are rising up,” Johanna McGary explained. “They are awake,, and they are giving me hope because you are the future and I just wanted to be in solidarity with the message and the movement “

“And if we can’t feel safe at school how are we supposed to learn?” McKinleyville High senior Emily Shapiro added.

Social media played a huge role in the organization of the walk, with various Instagram pages and other forms of social media being used to share the information about the when, where, and why of the protest. Students left Arcata High around 9:50 a.m., to walk together to the Plaza and arrive around 10 a.m. A tribute to the victims of Parkland began at 10:00, taking 17 minutes of silence to honor the victims and their lives.

Exchange student Emily Drescher from Germany participated in the walk-out as well. “It shouldn’t be like that. It shouldn’t happen. We are both exchange students from countries where guns are not allowed, and it’s not that common [school shootings]. It doesn’t happen because guns are not allowed,” Drescher said.

Of course with high school students, things don’t always go exactly as planned, and it took some stragglers a little longer to make it to the Plaza. Phones were a common sight in the hands of students, and the social media outlets of the participants became flooded with pictures and videos from the march, the first-person accounts of a local take on a nationwide movement.

Not all students participated. Less than half of Arcata High decided to be part of the walkout, even though AHS students made up most of the 300 on the Plaza. While the reasons why people went varied, the reasons why people chose not to attend were also plentiful.

“Because there’s so many people going, I feel like the benefit of school is greater than the benefit of one extra person,” senior Finley Bourne said. He decided to stay at school and work on homework and quizzes instead.

As the students arrived, organizers of the event began to read the names and short bios of school shooting victims from recent years. Nazalin Dickerson, Skaidra Pulley, Marseya Garcia, and Madeline Lankarani stood in front of the crowd, and Dickerson did most of the reading. As she spoke, other students moved through the crowd, writing “Who’s next?” in black ink on the palms of their fellow students. Those with written-upon palms raised them up.

The time on the Plaza took about 30 minutes, and afterwards, a much-subdued group of students returned to their classes. A smaller group of students remains on the Plaza for the rest of the day to continue to raise awareness about the need for gun control and school safety in the United States.

“I think it’s just important to stand in solidarity with the students that have been killed over the years, and I think that we really need to end this,” Anja Tjaden, a senior at NPA said. “If you have learned about protests and student movements in the past then you know that this is the way to make change.”

This event precedes another march scheduled for March 24th, March for Our Lives organized by Apprentice Entertainment, an organization focused on offering teens opportunities in the arts, with a focus on strengthening community.

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ADDENDUM: 

Below we’ve posted video from the Eureka High School walk-out, which was arranged primarily by students Klayre Barres and Kyra Dart. 

School personnel said that students who attended the demonstration would be cited for cutting class, but the student protesters were undeterred. Several members of the public stood on the outskirts of the rally voicing support.

After the demonstration, which included speeches and a prolonged moment of silence, a couple of adult women approached the students to commend them for their initiative.

“Thank you for doing this,” one said.

Another, who noted that she doesn’t even have kids, told Barres, “We’re here for you every step.”

—RB