Fighting for Safety in our Schools

The National School Walkout, planned by Women’s March organizers, will be on March 14 at 10 am in each time zone. It calls for students, faculty, parents, and others to walk out of school for 17 minutes — one minute for each person who was killed in the Florida school shooting. For more, check out the official website and Facebook page.

Women’s March Youth EMPOWER is calling for students, teachers, school administrators, parents and allies to take part in a #NationalSchoolWalkout for 17 minutes at 10am across every time zone on March 14, 2018 to protest Congress’ inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods. We need action. Students and allies are organizing the national school walkout to demand Congress pass legislation to keep us safe from gun violence at our schools, on our streets and in our homes and places of worship.
#Enough
I'll have to ask the district and the SEA what their thoughts are.  I had suggested that rather than leaving or staying out for a long period, that students, teachers and staff could walk out, circle the building (or be in front of it) and join hands as a symbol of school unity against violence.

The superintendent of Grand Rapids, Michigan is okaying everyone to walk out.  
John Helmholdt, GRPS communications director, said the administration will be sending communications to parents and staff with detailed information about the process and structure of the walk out.

He said the school will take a very structured approach to the walk out and a parent opt-in form, like a permission slip for the protest, will be sent out. The forms will need to be submitted by March 9.
I note this is DeVos' home turf.  Interesting.

From the Washington Post:
Organizers of a rally against mass shootings planned for next month in Washington are expecting up to 500,000 attendees, according to an event permit application.

The application filed this week with the National Park Service indicates the “March for Our Lives” will be March 24, although a location hasn’t been determined. The rally, organized by survivors of last week’s school massacre in Parkland, Fla., will have “sister marches” in other major cities, organizers said.

The rally’s website and Facebook page indicate marches in London, Philadelphia, Houston and Broward County, Fla., where a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.

Hollywood star George Clooney and his wfe, Amal, who is a human rights lawyer, pledged $500,000 to help fund a student march on Washington demanding gun-control reforms. 
Here is the info for the Seattle March for our Lives on Saturday, March 24 at 10 AM at Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill

Here's the March for our Lives Seattle Facebook page.

First, we would like to introduce ourselves. Emilia Allard and Rhiannon Rasaretnam are the co-organizers for the Seattle march and we are seniors from Ballard and Tahoma High School respectively. We are tired of inaction from Congress and are joining students across the nation who are taking it upon themselves to push for change surrounding gun laws.  

We created a signup link to collect contact information for anyone who is interested in supporting us:
https://goo.gl/forms/v6O1pGpH6xf0jJKH2

Link to donate to the Seattle March for Our Lives https://www.gofundme.com/march-for-our-lives-seattle

Other social media
Twitter: MFOLseattle
Instagram: @marchforourlives_seattle

#MarchforOurLives #Seattle #Youth #MarchforOurLivesSeattle

April 4th is the 2018 Black Lives Matter march in Seattle at Westlake Park, starting at noon.  Here's the Facebook page for that event.


There is also a walk-out planned for April 20th which will be the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings.
The Plan:
On Friday, April 20th, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting I propose a National High School student walk out. Walk out of school, wear orange and protest online and in your communities. Sign the petition if you pledge to do so. Nothing has changed since Columbine, let us start a movement that lets the government know the time for change is now. #nationalschoolwalkout

Comments

Anonymous said…
Don't want to see grief from downtown or principals at the schools where kids walk out. More power to them for taking a stand. Adults have been an impediment not a help in stopping the violence. Trump talked about #AmericanCarnage. Here it is. FL, CT, heck Arlington and almost Marysville and now the Garfield threat. Could be any of our schools, any of our kids.

Students should be supported in being as righteous on this issue as they wish to be.

DistrictWatcher
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said…
These students are amazing.

-NW Mom
Hadenough said…
Are any PTAs supporting the walk out?
Hadenough, I don't know. I wish SCPTSA was more communicative but I think it will really be a school-to-school decision. I have not heard from the district yet on its stance.
Anonymous said…
I hope the walkout is to draw attention to the need for mandatory services for mental health issues and addressing violence in schools.

Runcie says Cruz had attended a school with programs for emotionally and disabled students, and returned to Douglas in August 2016. By November, he says the “situation had deteriorated.” With the support of his mother, Cruz refused special needs services and remained at the school until February 2017.

Big miss
hadenough said…
From SEA


#ENOUGH National School Walkout - March 14th!
Students all over the country are rising up to take action in the wake of another tragic school shooting. The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, FL. are inspiring a country to act. SEA is in support of students, parents, educators, and communities rising up to be heard and to make a change.

On March 14th at 10am to 10:17am students are organizing to walkout of their schools to demand congress pass legislation to keep our schools safe. The Women’s March has a sign up on Facebook for schools to participate: #Enough! National School Walkout. The action each school takes may look different. We are hearing some schools have their walkout planned. Students, educators, administrators and parents are working together to make the student led events are successful and safe.

The district will send out a set of guidelines for the student walkouts as they have done in the past. SEA ARs will receive an email to assist staff and students to have a successful day.

On Saturday, March 24th the March For Our Lives, led by the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School FL will take place in Washington DC. A local march is being organized by March For Our Lives - Seattle. The March will begin at Cal Anderson Park at 10am.

There are also plans for national educator days of action to end gun violence in schools NEA has put its support toward this April 20th event, it will be co-led by Dian Ravitch, AFT and others. The SEA board of Directors and the SEA Representative Assembly will be discussing our participation in this event.

Phyllis Campano - SEA President
Michael Tamayo - SEA Vice-President
Seattle Education Association

Anonymous said…
I read somewhere that the Seattle PTA is being encouraged to boycott FedEx to support the movement to keep our kids safe. FedEx has refused to end member discounts for NRA members and #BoycottFedEx is trending on twitter. Has the PTA or SEA taken steps to end their relationship with FedEx?

http://time.com/5178103/fedex-nra-boycott/



-TooMuch
Anonymous said…
Here is Highline School District's position on walkouts.

Dear Highline Families,

Following the tragic shooting in a Florida high school on February 14, students around the country are planning walkouts to protest school violence. Anticipating that this movement may come to Highline schools, we want you to know how we will respond if students participate in a walkout.

We are proud that our students want to exercise their First Amendment rights to express their views on this important topic. When students advocate for an issue they feel passionate about, it can be a powerful learning experience. We also recognize that some students may not want to participate in a walkout and would prefer to stay in class. We want to ensure that all students feel safe and respected, no matter what they choose to do.

If a walkout occurs, schools and classes will continue on their normal schedule. If you want to excuse your child from class to allow them to participate, please contact your school’s office. Absences that are not excused by a parent will be treated as unexcused.

As always, the safety of our students is our priority. If a walkout should occur at any of our schools, we will deploy staff as necessary to ensure student safety.

Thank you,

Susan Enfield
Superintendent

-2D Parent
SusanH said…
Highline is wanting parents to "contact the school's office" to give permission. Seems like a big headache for the poor attendance folks to have to deal with upwards of 2,000 calls/emails just for a 17-minute walkout.
Eric B said…
According to one of the school board community meetings, the districts and boards have to walk a fine line since they aren't technically allowed to say they support the walkout. You can see the Highline message is extremely carefully worded to make it clear that they aren't going to take action against students (who get parental permission) but also not saying that they support the walkout. I don't know if SCPTSA is bound by the same rules or not.

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