More than 3,600 students participate in walk out, no disruptions were reported
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 16, 2018 4:26 PM
Full Size
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Hundreds of students gather on the track at Eastern Wayne High School Wednesday during the National School Walkout demonstration. The students began to arrive at the track just after 10 a.m. and went back to class 17 minutes after. Each minute represented a life lost during the recent school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
Between 3,600 and 3,700 of the approximately 11,230 students in Wayne County Public Schools grades 5 through 12 participated in Wednesday's National School Walkout demonstration.
Students in all middle schools and high schools participated at some level, as did some fifth-grade classrooms in elementary schools, Wayne County Public Schools spokesperson Ken Derksen said Friday.
The demonstration, inspired by the Women's March Youth EMPOWER movement and orchestrated at the local level, was intended to remember the people who lost their lives in the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. For some, it was also meant to protest Congress' inaction on curbing gun violence.
Students at Eastern Wayne, Goldsboro, Southern Wayne, Charles B. Aycock, Rosewood and Spring Creek high schools walked out of school for 17 minutes -- each minute representative of a life lost in the Feb. 14 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting.
Everything went smoothly, and there were no reports of disruptions, Derksen said.
However, at Southern Wayne student interviews were not allowed.
"In those situations it is a school-by-school decision," Derksen said. "Principals are ultimately in charge of their campuses. It comes down to a principal's decision."
Seventeen-year-old LaNiah Murriell, a student at Southern Wayne, said in Friday interview that during the demonstration at the school people were live-streaming it on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram.
"What had been reported that we had been taking selfies and talking with one another, but when I talked to other students they were telling me they were live streaming on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat," LaNiah said.
"We were out there trying to support the cause and encourage others to support and honor the 17 lives."
There were social media postings as well that Dillard Middle School students did not participate and had been told they would be written up if they did.
Dillard did have students participate, Derksen said.
"We were very clear with these school administrations that no punitive action would be taken with students," he said. "Every principal was told they needed to have a safe location for students who chose to participate in the National School Walkout -- that they have a safe location where they could gather."
Dillard Middle School students also watched a video about the Parkland shooting, things going on nationally and the national school walkout, Derksen said.
Derksen said Dillard was the only school he is aware of that did something like that.
For the most part, it was business as usual in the classroom, he said.
"The assistant principal did share that he did give an announcement and basically let students know that they were allowed to participate, but it needed to be done in the spirit of what it was intended, that it could not be disruptive," he said.
"There was never any discussion about consequences if students were disruptive or were never told that they would be written up if they participated."
That is what students were told, he said.
"These functions were not school led," Derksen said. "They were totally student led so every school, it was a little different. The majority of the events that we heard there where students opted to do moments of silence.
"Some schools, the students read the names of the victims. They released balloons. So it was an opportunity for a lot of these students, they were there to honor the victims from last month's school shooting. From my understanding every school, after 17 minutes the students walked back in."
The event had been promoted in the news media and on social media for the last couple of weeks, Derksen said.
"We were already putting plans in place to ensure that as we got closer to the event that we reached out to the schools and made sure that they were aware of the event, and also that if they heard from any student leaders, to start putting a plan in place," he said.
"To be honest, we really did not know what to expect."
Not all who walked out went to the school administration first, he said.
It was very much a student-driven movement, but school officials still felt it necessary to have a plan in place, Derksen said.
"The challenge with this event was that it was two-fold," he said. "One part of the event was to honor the victims of this horrific tragedy in Florida last month. But there is also a part of that, which is why we could not endorse, promote or encourage student participation, was the fact there was a political nature to this event.
"So a lot of students were there to honor the victims. It was not political. But there also were some students there for the political aspects to try to bring awareness of gun violence, trying to make some kind of change with gun laws. We can't differentiate between the two. All schools had been instructed to have plans in place."
-- Assistant editor Melinda Harrell contributed to this report.