STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Wood River High School students were told to walk up, not just walk out, Wednesday as they joined thousands of students across the nation in the National Student Walkout.
Amber Leyba, who started a mental wellbeing organization at school with the help of NAMI-WRV, told students that walking up to a fellow student who is experiencing mental distress and extending a hand of friendship may be just what that student needs to see his or her way of a dark place.
“You don’t know—just by saying ‘Hi,’ you could be making their day,” she said.
About two-thirds of WRHS’s 936 students took part in the half-hour gathering to express their views on school safety, estimated Chloe Henderson.
They joined more than 3,000 walkouts of students in colleges and elementary, middle and high schools across the country. Most lasted 17 minutes—one minute for each person murdered in the Parkland, Fla., massacre a month earlier.
While many students used their rallies to plead for gun control, the WRHS gathering was gun-neutral, rather than being pro-gun or anti-gun, said Gracie Doyle, who helped organize the rally with a school organization called Next Generation Politics.
But guns were very much on the minds of the students, down to signs they carried that touted such sayings as “Protect Kids. Not Guns.”
Henderson described how hallways have to be checked before students are let out for a fire drill.
“We’ve never experienced a shooting in our valley, but it’s something that could happen,” said a sobbing Davis Olsen, who carried a rain-streaked sign asking “Am I Next?”
“We can’t ignore these shootings when they happen all the time,” added Liam Jones. “We have a right to own guns but we need to realize that people are being killed by them, and America has so many guns it’s ridiculous. I know a lot of people with mental health issues, also, and it’s important to take care of them. We can come up with ideas, but it’s up to our government to take the responsibility to provide us with legislation concerning guns and mental health. Legislation needs to happen.”
The Blaine County School District closed the WRHS gathering to the public for the safety of the students. And it closed it to the media, as well.
Heather Crocker, the school's communication director, allowed press to approach the scene only as the gathering was ending.
Unable to stand in solidarity with the students, about 30 adults from the community braved a hard-driving rain that morphed into snow a few blocks away at the Fox Acres Road roundabout.
“This is where the police said we could stand,” said Ben Schepps of the rally that was organized at the last minute by Indivisible Blaine.
“We standing here out of solidarity. We want students to know the public is standing here with them,” said Maureen VanAmerongen.
“We need adults to support these kids,” said Elizabeth Jeffery, a former teacher.
Those standing in the rain and snow held signs saying, “Hug Kids Not Guns.” And “Department of Education, not Department of Defense.”
One particularly scathing sign listed the amount of money the National Rifle Association donates to Idaho’s Congressmen, with Rep. Mike Simpson coming in tops with $43,750.
“Blood on Their Hands. Money in Their Pockets,” the sign said.
“Money for guns and not for books?” asked Helen Stone, emphatically.
Near the Community Campus nearly 20 demonstrators, including students from the College of Southern Idaho-Blaine County Campus, held signs saying “Protect Kids, Not Guns,” and “One Child is Worth More than All the Guns on Earth.”
“We don’t need thoughts and prayers! We need gun control!” said a sign held by Indra Garcia.
“I don’t think schools are doing much to protect students,” said Natalie Garcia who is studying to be a teacher. “Is a life worth one gun? That’s ridiculous!”
“Our parents taught us schools were one of the safest places to be,” added Patty Keene, a biology mayor. “An army of teachers is the exact opposite of what we should do. It’ll make the problem worse.”
While the focus was on the WRHS gathering, about 50 students staged a sit-in at Wood River Middle School, observing an extended moment of silence with 17 rings of a triangle. They then recorded statements and a banner to have Sen. Michelle Stennett present to the Idaho legislature.
Silver Creek High School students used the time to write their viewpoints on school safety to legislators. And 16 Carey students had a discussion under the covered walkway, while others stayed in class writing thank you notes and positive messages.
Elsewhere in Idaho thousands of students marched on the Idaho Capitol, rallying against gun violence. With reporters there to document their hopes and concerns, footage of the students encircling all the floors of the Rotunda chanting loud enough that legislators would hear made it onto the Rachel Maddow show, beamed to the nation.
Thousands more marched to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., where just the day before 7,000 pairs of children’s shoes had been placed to represent the children killed by guns since Sandy Hook.
Nationwide, there’s already talk of a March for Our Lives on March 24. Others are planning to walk out of classrooms on April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting.
“It doesn’t have to happen to us to understand how horrible and dangerous this is,” said WRHS Junior Clara Harding. “We can’t let this die down, either. We won’t let it die down. This is just the beginning.”
MARJORY—“NEVER GIVE UP”
Several of those who turned out for Wednesday’s rallies held posters with a picture of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, an American suffragist and conservation who defended the Everglades against efforts to drain it for development. The Florida school where 17 people were massacred a month ago was named in her honor.
“Be a nuisance where it counts,” she once wrote. “Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action. Be depressed, discouraged and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption and bad politics—but never give up.”