A week after threat canceled walkout, these students get their say about gun violence

The students who filled the Broughton High School auditorium on Wednesday applauded, loudly. Moments later, they stood and applauded again.

The applause and standing ovation were for classmate Zoe Dion, a 16-year-old junior who struck the most responsive chord during a program held as part of Broughton's student walkout against gun violence in schools.

Dion dismissed the notion that young people should be responsible for their own safety. "I am 16, and I should not have to be the voice of change," she said. "I am 16, and my biggest problem should be getting my driver's license or looking for a college."

"If you are an adult and have told me to be the change I want to see, do it yourself," Dion said to loud applause.

"I cannot vote yet," she continued. "I am a minor. You can vote. You are the adults. Stop telling me as a 16-year-old that I'm responsible for begging for my safety."

Adults are responsible for the safety of children, Dion said. "Stop telling us to protest, and stop telling us to lead this movement," she said. "Be the change you want to see in the world and make sure that I can turn 17."

Those last lines drew a standing ovation from Broughton student, who had planned a walkout on March 14 when students across the country protested violence in schools.

But the school postponed the event because of a rumored threat on social media. Students who spoke Wednesday didn't mention last week's rumor.

Students walked from their classes to the auditorium, filling the seats and then the floor in front of the stage. With the auditorium full, another 300 or so students walked to a gym on campus. One estimate put the total number of walkouts at 1,000 or more.

"Our purpose today is twofold," said Clay Oxford, a senior and student body president. "First and foremost, we want to honor the memory of those who lost their lives in the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and the victims of school shootings since: Courtlin Arrington, who lost her life on March 7, and the two victims of (Tuesday's) Great Mills school shooting, who were critically injured.

"However, we’re also here because we want to call for action, and we want to make sure that no tragedy like that can happen again," Oxford said.

In one of the program's more somber moments, Broughton students read the names of the Parkland shooting victims. After naming the victims and briefly describing them, Broughton students said, "We will remember you."

Junior Kyvaughn Lyons was among the speakers. "I'd like to imagine a world where something like the shooting in Parkland would be considered impossible," he said, "and not because of the lack of means to do it, but because we would have developed an overwhelming love, an overwhelming respect for the spectacle of human life.

"None of us want to live with the threat of being shot in our schools," he added. "No one wants to live with the memory of shots being fired in their schools."

But to end gun violence in schools, Americans must come together, Lyons said. "No matter how you think we can solve this, we can't solve it divided," he said.

Senior Sanzari Aranyak was among the walkout's organizers. "I turned 18 last Thursday, and the first thing that I did is register to vote, because in our democracy, my vote is my voice," she said. "That voice will be heard as a call for my representatives to do more than than just send more useless thoughts and prayers."

School shootings have become commonplace, Aranyak said. "We saw one (Tuesday) at a school that walked out last Wednesday on National Walkout Day," she said, referring to Great Mills High School in Maryland. "We have come here today to say no more."

Aranyak said students will continue to push for changes to gun laws. "We are in the line of fire while our legislators fail to protect us with laws that keep guns out of our schools," she said. "As a senior, I should be celebrating my impending graduation, not mourning the loss of too many of my peers. We say never again.

"Never again.

"Never again."

This story was originally published March 21, 2018 at 12:54 PM with the headline "A week after threat canceled walkout, these students get their say about gun violence."