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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2018)
Page 4 March 21, 2018 Students Declare ‘Enough’ C ontinued From F ront northeast Portland middle school. The students left classes at 10 a.m. and held signs, marched down Martin Luther King Boulevard and chanted, “What do we want? Gun control! When do we want it? Now!” Roosevelt High School in St. Johns also held a rally on their athletic field that included an ed- ucation talk about gun laws in the U.S. and other countries, student and teacher testimonies, and a mo- ment of silence. “We just want to survive high school without being gunned down,” one Roosevelt sophomore pleaded to the crowd of over a hundred students and teachers. Portland Public Schools Su- perintendent Guadalupe Guerre- ro, elected officials, and school board members were also in atten- dance. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, who signed a new state law this month that makes it more diffi- cult for abusive intimate partners and stalkers to obtain guns, also attended. Tracie Talerico, who has been teaching English at the school for the past four years, was a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School graduate in 1996. “I didn’t have lockdown drills, the only drills I ever had were fire drills,” she said to students and ad- Photo by d anny P eterson /t he P ortLand o bserver Roosevelt High School students assemble in the stands of their athletic field to add their voices to the issue of gun violence and school safety during a school walk-out in solidarity with similar actions at schools across the nation. Portland School Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and others also attended the March 14 demonstration. AFFORDABLE JJ Web: www.sunlanlighting.com E-mail: kay@lightlady.com 3901 N. Mississippi Ave. Portland, OR 97227 503.281.0453 Fax 503.281.3408 LOCK & KEY FULL LOCKSMITH - SERVICE RE-KEY AND INSTALL LOCKS LOCKED OUT? WE MAKE KEYS FROM SCRATCH HOUSE, OFFICE OR CAR 503-284-9582 Serving Portland/Metro area (N, NE, SE, SW & NW) ministrators. “Douglas is no different than Roosevelt. Douglas is no differ- ent than any other school where you go to class, and you talk with your friends, and you try to learn, and you try to make it through the day,” she said before calling on students, who she called “fear- less” and “brave” to take action and vote. “The future is in your hands,” she added. Senior Magda Armendarig Sul- livan, 17, made the case for adopt- ing policies similar to Australia. That country banned semi-auto- matic weapons, created more hur- dles for people to buy guns, and implemented a government gun buy-back program. They’ve not had a mass shooting since the laws took place in 1996. “I hope that lawmakers see they need to listen to us and they need to change the laws surrounding guns,” Armendarig Sullivan told the Portland Observer. “As students, we do have a voice and it’s powerful and they need to listen to us and they need to create change,” said senior Zoe Dumm, who shared a moving poem at the demonstration. “I feel like it’s been happening my whole life. I’ve watched kids die and wondered if that could’ve been me. And it’s just kind of been swept under the rug,” anoth- er student, Dyllan Newville, 16, remarked. “I just hope that we’re heard or seen, and that somebody takes an action with us, not just us,” sopho- more Taylor Greene, 15, said. Greene said she will be helping with an a “March for Our Lives” demonstration happening on Sat- urday, March 24 in downtown Portland, which will also coincide with protests across the nation in solidarity with the Parkland stu- dents who have been advocating gun law reforms.