Chimacum Middle School Students Gather
On March 14, 2018, Chimacum Middle School students gathered by the track in honor of the 17 people who died in the Parkland, FL shootings.
It was amazingly well organized and students were attentive and open to listen. Not all students chose to come out. It was by choice yet most of the middle school students chose to come and spend 17 minutes thinking about the implications of yet another school shooting.
This walkout was not so well organized by chance. When students first heard this was happening across our nation, they wanted to do something. They talked to their teachers and with support from the ASB advisor, they planned what they would do. Even though our school could not take a stand politcally, as we are not allowed to sway our students one way or another, we were very supportive of what they wanted to do. I must say, it was easy to support my students when they had a plan and followed it. So when the time came I asked my students if they were planning on walking out. Most of my 5th period class of 8th graders told me that they wanted to go out and join their peers. There were a few who didn’t want to go out. Luckily, as a staff, we had a plan as well. Two teachers stayed behind and offered their rooms up as a place for those who did not want to walkout. The rest of the teachers went out to supervise as needed and to monitor the halls. It went very smoothly and our students were well behaved and respectful.
I asked Ava, an 8th grader who helped organize the event and who wrote a great speech for the day to share her speech on our class blog. Here’s a snippet of what she wrote, to see the her entire speech and what Ava thought about the event, go straight to the blog post:
“Today we are here to honor life’s lost in the unspeakable tragedies happening all over the country. The latest in Parkland Florida.
Our voices as students, teachers, and members of the community need to be heard. Our voices need to create change. Our voices need to inspire others to do the same.
I’m asking you to put aside your political views for 17 minutes. I’m asking you actually recognize what is happening around the U.S. I’m asking you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
This is our lives! Their lives were taken away from them, so yes I am asking you to do something. I am begging every single one of you. We cannot choose to ignore or tune out these events because they do not affect us. Because when we let it go untested it gets worse.
This is how a Wednesday went from a normal day to a movement like this…”
