Carson City students participate in nationwide walkout to address school safety
Submitted by Jim Gustafson on Wed, 03/14/2018 - 11:31am
Students across the country, including those in Carson City, walked out of class Wednesday, marking one month since a mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Carson High School students by the hundreds filled the campus football field bleachers to observe a moment of silence. This was followed up with two CHS students who addressed their classmates.
Also presented was a large poster where students were able to express their thoughts and opinions on the matters of school safety.
The event itself lasted 17 minutes, was peaceful and there was not any counter demonstrations. Administrators report none of the students left campus nor were there any unexcused absences.
“To the survivors of Stoneman Douglas High, you are not alone,” CHS Senior Tobias Arreola said at the podium. “Today, we stand with you. We stand with you in your goals of shaping a better future for the younger generations and for those to come.”
Arreola spoke before his classmates and made clear the focus Wednesday is on school safety. The word gun was never brought up in the 17 minute event.
“I think it’s extremely important. we’re exercising our right to free speech,” he said afterwards. “This movement, whether you agree or disagree, was in response to the Stoneman shooting. It is to raise awareness of the increased number of shootings.”
“We are very respectful with each other's opinions, despite our differences,” he added. "There was a bigger turn out than I expected.”
Long time CHS educator, Patt Quinn-Davis, teaches journalism, digital media and honors and senior English. She said she was impressed with the response.
“For them to be able to express their right to assemble is awesome,” she said. “I’m so proud of our district for allowing this. It shows this district cares for the kids and all of us.”
In her new digital media class, students are learning how to cover news using visual and written mediums.
“To understand what their job is out here — I really admire them,” she said. “It affects them personally, but they have been able to step back and cover the news.”
School administrators were also pleased with the response.
“We felt it important as a district to turn this into a teaching opportunity and educate our young citizens on how to exercise their rights of free speech and assembly and peacefully be heard,” said Superintendent Richard Stokes. “We encourage all students to be actively engaged citizens who are knowledgeable of multiple viewpoints surrounding current events in the world today.”
“All of our kids acted in a very serious and mature manner as this is a serious subject,” said Carson High School Principal, Tasha Fuson. “They represented our school and their families well and I’m proud of how they approached this topic.”
Carson Middle School also participated by observing 17 minutes of silence beginning at 10 a.m. on their campus. Similarly, Eagle Valley Middle School utilized their Advisory classes at the beginning of the day to have discussions on school safety, how they may support each other, listing any concerns students have and how they may work as a team (staff and students) to communicate and make everybody feel welcome and safe.
- Carson City
- Assembly
- Awareness
- carson
- carson city students
- Carson High
- Carson High School Students
- CHS
- City
- class
- classes
- country
- Current Events
- day
- digital media
- Douglas
- Douglas High School
- eagle
- Eagle Valley Middle School
- event
- events
- exercise
- families
- FOOTBALL
- Free
- free speech
- High school students
- Honors
- Job
- kids
- Kids!
- learning
- May
- media
- middle school
- movement
- new
- News
- news
- Opportunity
- Safe
- Safety
- school
- senior
- Shooting
- staff
- students
- Superintendent Richard Stokes
- Support
- survivors
- Teaching
- Wednesday
- Carson High School
- Carson Middle school
- journalism
- high school
