By Oona Mackesey-Green
Northside News

At 10 am on March 14, Sherman Middle School students lined the curb in front of their school, holding up signs at the passing cars. “Power is not Peace!” one read. Another: “Why should we be afraid to go to school?” Malcolm Shabazz City High schoolers sat further down the curb, with their own signs resting solidly against the frozen ground. “How many kids have to die b4 change?”

They joined students around the country who exited their classrooms as a part of a youth-led National School Walkout to demand an end to gun violence. The walkout took place on the one-month anniversary of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed.

“Although this event is not school sponsored,” said Sherman 8th grade teacher Kate Schultz, “we encourage our students to be civically minded and actively engaged.” Teachers and staff remained in the background throughout the protest, giving students space to speak for themselves.

Meija, a 7th grader at Sherman Middle School, said that “after the Parkland school shooting, we were done with seeing children dying and the government not doing anything about it. We don’t want to see any more people killed in school shootings.” She hopes that the protests today will spark action. “There need to be regulations to keep our students safe. Nobody should have to go through this. There have been too many tragedies.”

After 17 minutes, one minute for each life lost during the shooting in Parkland, students at Sherman and Shabazz filed back into their classrooms.

At East High School, students were just getting started. High schoolers in and around Madison coordinated a march from East to the State Capitol building to occur later that morning. Thousands of students, their families and community members rallied in support of various gun control regulations and increased school safety.

For some students, the topic hits close to home. “I’ve lost a lot of close people to gun violence,” said 17 year old Jamah. “This one matters. I’m here to make a difference for people who can’t or won’t speak.”

Meija said she also planned to join the protest at the Capitol that afternoon.

“After school shootings we always hear that it’s not the right time to talk about it and it gets forgotten again,” she said. “We have to talk about this and we have to do something. Today, we were honoring those who died while making a demand for this not to happen again.”

With clear blue skies above, students at Sherman Middle School directed their energies at the passing traffic during the walkout. They waved their signs and received honks of support. Further down the lawn, waging their own form of protest, Shabazz students sat silently beneath the shade of bare trees, their backs braced against the wind.