A6 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2018
NEWS
Students walk out of school to protest gun violence
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
AND JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITERS
Hundreds of Hermiston
High School students walked
out of class March 14 in sol-
idarity with peers across the
nation and in protest of the
violence that has increas-
ingly affected schools.
At 10 a.m., more than 300
students at the school left
their classes to participate in
a 17-minute walkout. The 17
minutes signified one minute
for each of the people killed
in a shooting in Parkland,
Florida one month prior.
They filed out of the
school and onto Kennison
Field, where some stood qui-
etly while others chanted
their support for gun control
and school safety.
“Protect our children, not
our guns!” A small group of
students started chanting at
the back of the crowd. The
message quickly spread.
Nayeli Martinez, a senior
who had started the chant,
said a lot of students had
been feeling intimidated by
a conservative point of view,
but now they were ready to
speak up.
“We’re going to respect
people who feel the oppo-
site way,” she said. “I have a
feeling a few of us will take
action, and let our voices be
heard.”
Hermiston High School’s
Associated Student Body had
provided postcards and infor-
mation for how to contact
state, local and federal rep-
resentatives, of which Marti-
nez said some of the students
would likely take advantage.
Jada Rome, a ninth grader
at Hermiston High School,
said participating in the
walkout was really import-
ant to her.
“They don’t have a
voice,” she said. “The lives
of the children lost, they no
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Hermiston sophomore Hannah Weber takes video on her phone during a walkout March 14 at
Hermiston High School.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Hermiston High School student walk out of their classrooms
and down a hall a little after 10 a.m. on March 14 during a gun
violence protest in Hermiston.
longer have a voice. We’re
the voice for them.”
Jeramy Simon, a sopho-
more, stood quietly during
the protest. He said he par-
ticipated because he wanted
to pay tribute to the Parkland
victims.
Simon said he felt more
needed to be done for all
students.
“We should help out peo-
ple,” he said. “The Parkland
shooter was a bully victim.”
He said he felt Herm-
iston’s school culture has
improved, with the signs
recently put up around cam-
pus and the Helping Hands
program.
“There’s always more that
can be done,” he said. “If a
kid looks sad or lonely, talk
to him and be his friend.”
Reed and Rian Middleton
participated in the walkout,
standing quietly in the front
of the group of students.
“I don’t feel like much
action has been taken,” Reed
Middleton said. “It’s a great
way for us teens to be able to
speak out. Our opinions mat-
ter, and we should be able to
have a say in the schools.”
Principal Tom Spoo and a
few administrators and teach-
ers stood outside supervising
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.
The night before stu-
dents walked out of schools
around the country in protest
of school violence, Alondra
Cadenas got out her markers
and started making signs.
“On Valentine’s Day in
Florida all these kids died
because they thought they
were safe at school,” the fifth-
grader wrote before carefully
copying down the names of
all 17 people — including 14
children — who died in the
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
High School shooting.
A second sign said “Hey
adults! It’s time to stop
school shootings.” But no
one was there to help her
hold it. Although one of her
friends had planned to join
her, in the end Alondra was
the only student to walk out
of Sunset Elementary School
last week.
“I stood out there so maybe
the adults would notice and
do something about gun vio-
lence,” she said.
She grabbed her phone
and posters out of her back-
pack when 10 a.m. came and
headed outside. When she
was stopped by a teacher she
thought she might be sent
back to class, but she says the
teacher merely redirected her
toward the front door instead
of the back so that the office
staff could keep an eye on her
while she stood outside with
her sign, using her phone as
a timer. Three different adults
noticed her in front of the
school and asked her about
her protest.
“It felt good,” she said.
Alondra’s mother Norma
Regalado said she was proud
of her daughter for being
brave enough to walk out all
by herself. She said she had
discussed the Florida shoot-
ing and news of the planned
protest with her children (her
son Saul Cadenas, a fresh-
man at HHS, also partici-
pated) but in the end it was
up to them whether they
wanted to participate.
She said she thought it
was unfair for adults sitting
safely at home to say all of
the kids participating just
wanted to get out of class.
“I think most kids are
aware of that, that someone
could just walk in and start
shooting them,” she said,
noting that’s not something
she worried about when she
was that age.
Alondra said she didn’t
have specific laws she was
hoping got passed as a result
of the walkout, but she hoped
the adults did.
“I hope that gun violence
ends and stuff and the adults
might notice,” she said.
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