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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 15, 2018)
Page 8A OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian Thursday, March 15, 2018 WALKOUT: ‘We’re tired of being scared of going to school’ Continued from 1A to be able to speak out. Our opinions matter, and we should be able to have a say in the schools.” Middleton said students shouldn’t feel unsafe in schools, and that it’s important to keep speaking up. “Whether that’s more gun control or more attention — so much more attention — to mental health,” she said. Principal Tom Spoo and a few administrators and teachers stood outside super- vising the students, who filed back into the school at 10:17 a.m. Spoo said he did not have any comments about the protest. “We support the kids’ right to have a voice,” he said. Pendleton A few minutes before 10 a.m., Principal Dan Gree- nough’s voice crackled over the Pendleton High School PA system. He told students that they were about to watch a short video that would act as a launch for the “What’s Your 17?” campaign, a school- wide event that would ask students to perform daily acts of kindness for 17 days. He presented it as an alternative to the 17-minute walkout. “Instead of walking out, I ask you to do something that will have a lasting impact,” he said. But shortly after Gree- nough signed off, more than 50 students walked past the administrative offices, through the front door and gathered by the flagpole near the main entrance. They held signs with messages like “Am I next?” and “Arm teachers with pencils, not with guns,” but they otherwise kept a fune- real silence at the outset. After seven minutes, senior Journey Hahn emerged to speak to the crowd as the sniffles that occasionally punctured the quiet turned into tears and Staff photo by Kathy Aney A group of Pendleton High School students walked out of class at 10 a.m. to participate in a nationwide student rally to protest gun violence. Staff photo by E.J. Harris Staff photo by Kathy Aney Students walk down a hallway during an anti-gun vio- lence walkout Wednesday at Hermiston High School. A group of Pendleton High School students hold signs during the walkout on Wednesday. sobs. “We’re tired of being scared of going to school,” she said. Following another period of silence, freshman Zion Waugh addressed the audi- ence with the support of a few friends. She talked about how she was sometimes asked her if she felt safe in school, a question she never hesitated to answer affirmatively. But after the events in Parkland, she wasn’t sure how she would answer the question. During the entirety of the protest, the kids were under the watch of assistant principal Troy Jerome, who spent most of the time near the summit of the school’s main driveway. A Pendleton police officer cruised by the flagpole a few times in his vehicle before stationing himself between Jerome and the students. A man in a car drove up the driveway and told Jerome he wanted to “hear what they had to say.” But Jerome said they weren’t speaking and the man eventually drove away. Anita Crawford walked up to the students with her dog and praised them for taking action. “I love guys and I don’t even know you,” she said, eliciting a few quiet thank yous from the students. Jim Willis stood with the students for the entire 17 minutes, the only non-stu- dent to participate in the protest. After the event ended, Willis said he had children and grandchildren who attended Pendleton High School and he stood in solidarity with the students to put pressure on federal lawmakers to change gun laws. With enough grassroots pressure, he said there was a chance it could happen. As the clock drew closer to 10:17 a.m., more students tried to make their own speeches as Greenough hopped back onto the PA to encourage students to partic- ipate in “What’s Your 17?” In the final moments before students began to walk back toward the main entrance, it was difficult to hear either Greenough or the students as their messages overlapped. At Stanfield Secondary School, students did not participate in a walkout, but the leadership class held an assembly, inviting repre- sentatives from Lifeways to speak about mental health awareness. Superintendent Beth Burton said the school’s Resource Officer, Joyce Wright, talked to students about school safety and reporting suspicious behavior and activity. The students wore blue as a symbol of peace and unity, and had a moment of silence to remember Parkland victims. Umatilla School District Superintendent Heidi Sipe said 16 middle schoolers and 25 high schoolers walked out, while the rest stayed in class and discussed safety plans, reporting options and prevention ideas. U.S. students stage massive walkout nationwide to protest gun violence Associated Press They bowed their heads in honor of the dead. They carried signs with messages like “Never again” and “Am I next?” They railed against the National Rifle Associa- tion and the politicians who support it. And over and over, they repeated the message: Enough is enough. In a wave of protests one historian called the largest of its kind in American history, tens of thousands of students walked out of their class- rooms Wednesday to demand action on gun violence and school safety. The demonstrations extended from Maine to Hawaii as students joined the youth-led surge of activism set off by the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. “We’re sick of it,” said Maxwell Nardi, a senior at Douglas S. Freeman High School in Henrico, Virginia, just outside Richmond. “We’re going to keep fighting, and we’re not going to stop until Congress finally makes resolute changes.” Students around the nation left class at 10 a.m. local time for at least 17 minutes — one minute for each of the dead in the Florida shooting. Some led marches or rallied on Colin Murphey/Daily Astorian via AP High school students in Astoria hold up signs during a walkout Wednesday. football fields, while others gathered in school gyms or took a knee in the hallway. At some schools, hundreds of students poured out. At others, just one or two walked out in defiance of administrators. They lamented that too many young people have died and that they’re tired of going to school afraid they will be killed. “Enough is enough. People are done with being shot,” said Iris Fosse-Ober, 18, a senior at Washburn High School in Minneapolis. Some issued specific demands for lawmakers, including mandatory back- ground checks for all gun sales and a ban on assault weapons like the one used in the Florida bloodbath. While administrators and teachers at some schools applauded students for taking a stand — and some joined them — others threatened punishment for missing class. As the demonstrations unfolded, the NRA responded by posting a photo on Twitter of a black rifle emblazoned with an American flag. The caption: “I’ll control my own guns, thank you.” The protests took place at schools from the elementary level through college, including some that have witnessed their own mass shootings: About 300 students gathered on a soccer field at Colorado’s Colum- bine High, while students who survived the Sandy GUN BAN: 16 shootings since Parkland Continued from 1A Wednesday and marched on the Oregon State Capitol, which is across the street from the campus. Students chanted: “Enough is enough,” “The NRA (National Rifle Asso- ciation) has got to go,” and “No more silence; end gun violence.” Samantha Coleman, a junior at Willamette Univer- sity, said she would like to see stronger background checks before gun sales. A 17-year-old student at her former high school in Culver City, California, was arrested Feb. 28 for making threats against the school. A gun at his home was voluntarily turned over to law enforcement, according to local media reports. “When I heard about that, it definitely hit close to home,” Coleman said. To get an assault weapon ban on Oregon’s November ballot, the chief petitioners will need to gather more than 88,000 signatures by July 6. The coalition already had a volunteer force of 300 people to collect signatures as of Wednesday, Knutson said. They expected to double or triple that number by the official launch of the campaign Thursday, he said. Other chief petitioners for the initiative petition are Rev. Alcena Boozer, former principal of Jefferson High School and pastor emeritus of St. Philip the Deacon Episcopal Church, and Rabbi Michael Cahana of Congre- gation Beth Israel. Since the Parkland shooting, 16 more mass shootings have occurred in the country. Oregon has experienced school shoot- ings Thurston High School in Springfield in 1998, Spring- water Trail High School in Gresham in 2007, Reynolds High School in Troutdale in 2014 and Umpqua Commu- nity College in Roseburg in 2015. Hook Elementary School attack in 2012 marched out of Newtown High School in Connecticut. In the nation’s capital, more than 2,000 high-school age protesters observed 17 minutes of silence while sitting on the ground with their backs turned to the White House. President Donald Trump was out of town. The students carried signs with messages such as “Our Blood/Your Hands” and “Never Again” and chanted slogans. In New York City, they chanted, “Enough is enough!” In Salt Lake City, the signs read, “Protect kids not guns,” ‘’Fear has no place in school” and “Am I next?” At Eagle Rock High in Los Angeles, teenagers took a moment of silence as they gathered around a circle of 17 chairs labeled with the names of the Florida victims. Stoneman Douglas High senior David Hogg, who has emerged as one of the leading student activists, livestreamed the walkout at the tragedy-stricken school on his YouTube channel. He said students couldn’t be expected to stay in class while there was work to do to prevent gun violence. “Every one of these indi- viduals could have died that day. I could have died that day,” he said. In joining the protests, the students followed the example set by many of the survivors of the Florida shooting, who have become gun-control activists, leading rallies, lobbying legislators and giving TV interviews. Their efforts helped spur passage last week of a Florida law curbing access to assault rifles by young people. Another protest against gun violence is scheduled in Washington on March 24, with organizers saying it is expected to draw hundreds of thousands. But whether the students can make a difference on Capitol Hill remains to be seen. Congress has shown little inclination to defy the powerful NRA and tighten gun laws, and Trump backed away from his initial support for raising the minimum age for buying an assault rifle to 21. A spokeswoman for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, newly appointed head of a federal panel on school safety, said DeVos “gives a lot credit to the students who are raising their voices and demanding change,” and “their input will be valuable.” David Farber, a history professor at the University of Kansas who has studied social change movements, said it is too soon to know what effect the protests will have. But he said Wednes- day’s walkouts were without a doubt the largest protest led by high school students in the history of the country. LENT March 16th from 5 to 7:00 p.m. @ the St. Anthony Hospital Blue Mountain Cafe Cedar Wrapped Salmon - $7.50/Adults - $7.00/Children & Seniors Baked Potato w/ Toppings & Vegetable of the day. 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