Roughly 40 percent of the students at Four Rivers Charter Public School have learned something about consequences this week, and in the process demonstrated a real sense of responsibility.
The 90 students walked out on classes Monday morning to march to the Greenfield Common in solidarity with victims and families of the Parkland, Fla., shooting last year and all others affected by gun violence, including New Zealand Muslims just last week.
The students knew in advance that taking the action – a form of civil disobedience – would cost them a two-day suspension. Regardless, they made their signs that expressed anguish and anger over gun violence and cried out for change. At the Common, some took turns with a megaphone and read statements.
“The idea of being shot in school is terrifying,” said 15-year-old Ella Parker, who organized the 2½-hour event with 17-year-old Gina Magin.
The calls gave way to 17 minutes of silence – one for each person killed in MarjoryStoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.
“I should never have to text my family from under a desk to say goodbye for the final time,” said Magin, who was critical of government inaction. “Thoughts and prayers are not preventing guns from killing our children. Thoughts and prayers will solve nothing. Take action. That is what I tell you today. I want you to take a stand for what you believe in, because if they don’t do their job, we will.”
Students evoked the mass shootings in New Zealand and at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Virginia Tech and Columbine High School.
It sounds like the adults at Four Rivers were conflicted about the walkout, and warned the students and their parents that leaving the school would yield consequences, punishment in the form of suspension.
Principal Peter Garbus said the school walks a line between admiration and support for passionate students and the school’s responsibilities as an institution to “ensure their safety or care,” something he said they can’t do if students leave their care.
The irony here is that the students were on the Common because they feel that institutions and our government are unable to ensure their safety, that they needed to do something on their own to begin to make their world safer.
Even Garbus had to admit that the students were acting on a lesson the school tries to teach. “We want them taking a stand and trying to make a difference,” he said.
So, the students preached the gospel of gun control in a public way, hoping to make some difference, to change some minds about what is one of the country’s most divisive issues, even in the face of what seems like the accelerating incidence of mass murder in our country and the world.
In the face of such dysfunction in our civil society, there are also consequences to doing nothing, which these students have reminded us. And so, to act, to spread their message, they were willing to accept their school’s consequences – a second day of suspension. It feels like a worthwhile and meaningful tradeoff.
And what did they did with that time inspired us further.
March organizers booked the Greenfield Library Community Room so the student protesters could gather to complete their missed school assignments – and to discuss what more can be done about gun violence.