On Wednesday, February 21 schools across the metro, including District 66, took part in a walkout in protest and remembrance. Since the recent school shooting in Florida and the push in the media for stricter gun control laws, students are showing their support for this campaign.
According to the Omaha World Herald, over 100 students at Westside Middle School participated. The walk-out was organized by a student via Snapchat. More than a dozen other schools participated in this walkout, bringing all different sizes of crowds.
Brandi Petersen, Director of Communications for the Westside Community Schools, told the Omaha World Herald that the middle school will excuse any student who stayed outside less than 30 minutes for the protest. Petersen said that any student who stays out longer than 30 minutes will have to serve two detentions since they missed a decent chunk of class time.
Assistant Principal of teaching and learning at Westside High School, Kimberly De La Cruz, said the school had some knowledge the night before of the scheduled walkout to take place the next day.
“Administration there and administration here, we had heard about [the walkout] through students alerting us on social media. We knew about it the night before, and in the morning we talked about it,” De La Cruz said.
The next morning around 100 students walked out.
“Students walked out around 10 a.m. and for students who returned at 10:30 a.m. there was not a consequence given but if they stayed out longer than 10:30 a.m. they have two detentions,” De La Cruz said. “Middle school administration had a statement that they read before hand outlining different options for the students.”
De La Cruz said she has a student at the middle school who participated in the walkout and tried to understand their point of view.
“I have a 7th grader at the middle school who did walk out,” De La Cruz said. “With my 7th grader I wasn’t sure if he was doing it because other kids were doing it or if he was doing it because it was something he felt very strongly about.”
De La Cruz said the first amendment is something she values and said she wants to ensure students understand how to properly exercise it.
“I taught english and when I was in high school I worked for my school newspaper,” De La Cruz said. “I believe in the first amendment and free speech, but I also think it’s really important that if you’re exercising that right, you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences. You also need to be sure that you know what you’re standing up for.”
March 24th is the “March for our Lives” in Washington D.C. and they are looking for support from other regions pushing for a walk-out. April 20th is the National High School Walkout day, which is in remembrance of the Columbine school shooting, but no time has been specified yet. De La Cruz said she isn’t sure how Westside will participate in these events.
“I honestly don’t know, it depends on so many different things,” De La Cruz said. “I have no idea what to expect. I feel like we’ll probably have a better idea when we’re closer to those two dates.”
Westside Middle School principal, Russ Olsen, said he wishes students would’ve coordinated with administration.
“I think it would’ve created a bigger and lasting impact,” Olsen said. “Our goal here is to positively impact these students. Their parents bring them to school, expecting that they’re safe, but outside is not a safe environment.”
Olsen said he hopes in the future students will come to administration or work through the middle school’s student council for anything.
“I have been working with the student council to try and plan thing for our students to find an outlet to make change,” Olsen said. “I hope in the future, with any issues that come up, students will organize with the school so whatever we decide on works for everyone.”
