Middle School students add their voices to gun violence debate.
Local Students Join #Enough National Student Walkout
Students across the U.S. are planning to walk out of school Wednesday to protest gun violence. The walkouts mark the one month anniversary of the shootings at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
Most protests begin at 10 a.m. and last 17 minutes to honor the 17 students killed in the Florida shooting.
Mia Echlin is a sixth grader at Norup International Middle School in Berkley. She is one of several students who will speak at her school’s walkout. She said she’s proud that her generation is taking on such an important issue.
“Kids are coming together to make a difference,” Echlin said. “Because we see a problem, and we see that it’s threatening us, and we’re gonna take it down.”
Echlin said some parents at her school are worried that student protesters might have to deal with counter-protesters. Her mom and other parents plan to form a “daisy chain” around the students as they demonstrate.
“I don’t understand why people would strongly disagree,” said Ally Blake, another sixth grader at Norup. “I mean,yeah, they might disagree about guns going away — but I don’t want someone to protest at our protest.”
Districts are providing a variety of accommodations and restrictions to students who want to walk out. Norup is requiring its students to return signed permission slips.
