Today’s walkout was held on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting. Lane Murdock a Sophomore from Ridgefield High School in Connecticut organized the walkout on a national level. The walkout at terrace was organized by students who met in Mr. Tongs room to make signs at flyers. Terrace students walked out of class at 10 a.m. and met up along 44th where they held signs and chanted, the protest lasted until 1:50 when school got out.
While the crowd may not have been as large as the March for our lives walkout in on March 14th which lasted for 17 minutes, students still attracted a lot of attention. The difference in attendance may have been due to the length of time for which the walkouts lasted and the upcoming testing season.
Community members who drove by were not afraid to show how they felt about the demonstration. While some shook their heads, many honked and cheered in support. There were even members of the community who brought snacks and water for the students.
Junior Sierra Clark gave a speech during the walkout at around 11 a.m. regarding her reason for walking out. Clark said that while not all students understood why she walked out today and might have made jokes about it, she didn’t mind. She believes that the dialogue regarding gun control cannot stop after just one walk out, which is why she walked out again, to continue the conversation. Clark said that she believes that increased gun control in the form of “digitalized universal background checks, banning the sale of accessories designed to increase a guns rate of fire, [having] a waiting period for and after purchasing a gun [and eliminating] private sales loopholes” could save lives, and that it shouldn’t be the students who have to change their way of life to be safe.
These views are shared by most students who walked out across the county as they are at the core of the Not One More movement. Students at Terrace joined students from about 2,500 other organized walkouts across the country in this continued push for gun reform.
