Students pressure leaders to take action on school shootings

MEREDITH — Hunter Martin, a senior at Inter-Lakes High School, said that, although New Hampshire has no history of school shootings, “it doesn’t mean it can’t or won’t happen here.”

Martin was among a small group of Inter-Lakes students who joined Parker Caswell in a walkout yesterday, on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado. The local action was part of a nationwide student walkout to honor the 13 people killed at Columbine, as well as the victims of other school shootings.

It also was aimed at holding elected officials accountable for their inaction on the issue; promoting a discussion of solutions to gun violence; and getting students engaged in the political process.

“It’s the latest action in a student-led movement that began after the Valentine’s Day massacre at a high school in Parkland, Florida,” Caswell noted.

He said that, when organizing the walkout, he purposely kept it on a small scale, without notifying the school administration in advance.

“That way, the administration’s role was not a factor in this,” Caswell said, explaining that it left the administration without a way to take a position to support or oppose the walkout.

“We do expect consequences,” he said, “but they would be exactly in line with what would happen if we were to skip the same amount of class time for an unrelated or non-political reason.”

The national walkout called for students to leave classes at 10 a.m. and observe 13 seconds of silence to honor those killed at Columbine, and then to use the rest of the day to work on voter registration, speaker panels, or other activities to raise awareness of gun violence.

Caswell said 10-15 students gathered in the courtyard outside the school after a morning assembly by Recycled Percussion. The courtyard is an area the administration previously identified as a safe spot for students to meet.

After the brief courtyard observance, Caswell said he reminded the students that school time is important and that, if they remained out of school, they could face more serious consequences.

“Or you can do something important,” he said.

All but six students returned to the building. The others went from the high school to the 48 Main Cafe & Creperie in downtown Meredith, where they sat down with The Laconia Daily Sun to discuss the walkout.

What does it accomplish?

The students explained that the walkout was not just a way to get out of school for the day. They planned to use the time to write letters to their local representatives, discuss their roles as voters for those old enough to vote, and later to travel to Concord where the National Education Association was holding a meeting.

The letter-writing, facilitated by a website known as Resistbot which identifies congressional representatives and delivers messages to them by text or other means, is a method to engage the students in political action, Martin said.

Maya Weil-Cooley, a sophomore at Inter-Lakes High School, said she finds it terrifying that someone could legally walk into a public building with a concealed weapon.

Caswell said they all have personal opinions on the solution to gun violence, which may or may not include banning weapons or raising the age to purchase a gun. What is important, he said, is to discuss solutions.

“Something needs to happen,” Martin said. “It’s always been swept under the rug because all have their opinions, but neither side is able to do anything. We’re keeping the pressure on Congress for some action. We need to show that students aren’t going to let the issue die.”

Caswell said the earlier walkout at Inter-Lakes, following the Parkland shootings, focused on memorializing those who died, while this walkout is focusing more on political action.

“It’s important that we have a conversation on this issue,” he said.

“We understand that six of us at Inter-Lakes won’t get the president to sign a bill,” he said, “but if seven million students across the nation keep the pressure on, we can make a difference.”

“The walkout movement gives us hope,” said senior Eli Marietta.

“All these people are working so hard to make sure something changes,” Weil-Cooley said, “and I want to be part of that.”

Not to be dismissed

Responding to some of the comments that have denigrated the student movement as being a case of uninformed youths being led by outside organizations, the six Inter-Lakes students said that is not the case.

“It’s hypocritical to say we’re old enough to buy weapons but not educated enough to understand the issues,” Martin said.

“It comes down to the primary method of communication being social media,” Caswell said. “They say we spend too much time on social media, but it’s the primary way our generation gets information.”

Willow Strother, a junior, said they spend a lot of time researching information on the internet, so they are very well-informed.

“It’s just an attempt to dismiss our voice,” she said. “Our generation is going to be a very big voting group, so they’re trying to dismiss us.”

Willow and Raven Strother, a freshman, had traveled to Washington, D.C., on a college tour and they attended a student rally where a girl from Parkland who had been shot in the head spoke very eloquently about the gun issue. Caswell and Weil-Cooley had attended a rally Concord. All said they were impressed by what their fellow students around the country are doing.

“This is to remind young people that you have a voice if you’re willing to do so,” Caswell said. “We’re showing everybody of our generation that we can be politically active.”

With 04-21 Walkout