On February 14th, 2018, the nation was shaken when a gunman walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and killed 17 students and faculty members. A string of school shootings have plagued the first two decades of the 21st century, and many felt enough was enough.

Exactly one month after the events in Parkland, students nationwide walked out of class at 10:00 AM for 17 minutes. Armed with signs and their words, they protested against gun violence and honored the 17 victims of the Parkland shooting.

An anonymous junior spoke of her mother’s wariness of her safety in school. “Every day she tells me to be safe,” she said. “Me opening the door for my friend should not be a risk”.

Then, voicing the thoughts of many students in America, the junior asked, “Isn’t school a safe place?”

Interlake’s GOVAA (Gender Orientated Violence Awareness & Advocacy) collaborated with school authorities to organize the school walkout at Interlake. Officers of GOVAA, Mina Zavary (Sophomore) and Maddie Brown (Junior), expressed that their goal for the walkout was to urge the banning of semi-automatic rifles, as their “sole purpose is to kill things”. They have also stressed that the walkout addresses “gun violence, not guns in general”.

On the day of the walkout hundreds of students left class and marched from Interlake’s flagpoles to the courtyard, all the while chanting:

“Hey, hey, ho, ho, AR-15’s have got to go!”
“Hey, hey, NRA! How many kids did you kill today?”
“No more gun violence! No more silence!”
“This is what unity looks like! Is what community looks like!”

Protesters then listened in silence, as Brown and Zavary read off the names of victims, some who were college-bound, some who were athletes, all whom were loved. Afterwards, they held a moment of silence.

“I was really impressed by how seriously everyone took it,” Teddy Redfield, a junior, said afterwards. “Half the school was there and when we had the moment of silence you could have heard a pin drop.”

Zavary then urged students not to let the walkout be the end of the conversation, and to call or write to their local congressmen. In a later interview, she went on to talk about a letter drive that GOVVA is organizing. “It’s important to have that student voice… There’re so many different ways that students can speak out about something that directly affects them” said Zavary.

Students then were invited to voice their own thoughts and feelings atop the courtyard platform. Kat Roberts, a freshman, and Washington Roets, a sophomore, both stepped forward and spoke before Navya Garg, a junior, closed out the 17 minutes.

“A thousand kids have died!” said Garg. She ended her short speech with an emotional shout of “How many more lives will this take?”.  With a clear demand for governmental action towards increased gun control, she stirred a cheer from the crowd before they returned to class.

Interlake staff and administration were involved in the organization process, looking into the legal dimensions of the walkout before issuing excused absences for attendees.

“Seeing a teacher care about what you care about is really impactful”, Brown stated. “As students our voices don’t get heard very often”.  She felt that the student-led walkout had shown that “Interlake stands against gun violence”.

It is true that not the entire student body, nor the staff, agree with the idea of total ratification the second amendment, and pro-gun students took the opportunity to emphasize their beliefs that a complete banning of guns is unnecessary.

Brown and Zavary acknowledged the importance of pro-gun attendees. They wanted to be “explicit that [they] weren’t fighting against [pro-gun students],” and believed it was  “important to have the other side present”.

Zavary stressed that “The main point of [the walkout] wasn’t just about fighting for gun control, but at the same time kind of honoring the seventeen victims of Parkland”.

A goal of the walkout was for families affected by Parkland and other school shootings to “feel the support nationwide and internationally”. The organizers of the walkout wanted those affected to know, “we are grieving with you”.

Regarding the nationwide scale of the school walkouts themselves, GOVAA comments that their involvement in the walkout felt like being “part of a bigger whole”. They believe that the “student voice”, be it on posters or in protests or everyday life, is the instrumental tool in fighting gun violence.