Columbus East High School students who walked out of the school Friday on the 19th anniversary of the fatal Columbine High School shooting in Colorado said they weren’t protesting for gun reform.
“This morning is an opportunity for us to stand up as citizens of this country as one body and say it’s time to protect each other,” a written statement provided by the student organizers said. “We are simply here to say that we remember the lives lost and we don’t want to lose anymore. Enough is enough.”
About 170 students, many wearing orange ribbons, stood near the East gymnasium at the flag pole to remember the student and staff deaths at Columbine, Sandy Hook, Stoneman Douglas, “and so many other high schools similar to our own,” the statement read.
The names of those who died Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, were read followed by silence from 10:03 to 10:17 a.m., which is the time frame when that school shooting occurred.
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Many students bowed their heads, closed their eyes and folded their hands during the silent period.
East Principal Mark Newell said he was impressed by the respectful and reverent attitudes displayed in memory of the shooting victims.
The request for classmates to stand silently without movement was meant to drive home an important point, co-organizer and East junior Maia Campbell said.
“Every excruciating moment that passed while we were cold and wanting to go inside represents a student who was shot and killed that will never have the freedom to go back to class like we can,” Campbell said.
Rumors had been circulating about the possibility that outside groups might show up to make a political statement about the student walkout, co-organizer and East junior Cameron Kelly said.
However, Columbus Police spokesman Lt. Matt Harris said there had been no indication of any possible disruptions and there were no security threats at East on Friday.
“It was a remarkably calm and somber event, and we had no reason to expect it would be otherwise,” Harris said.
About two months earlier, the Columbus East campus dealt with two suspected threats directed at the school, although no one was injured.
“I was totally shocked by the silence,” Kelly said. “It was such a memoriam.”
East senior Katherine Richardson, covering the event as a photojournalist for the school’s Oracle newspaper, said she was impressed with her classmates’ ability to come together for an issue that they believe in.
“It was a really cool moment not only to cover, but to become a part of,” Richardson said.
Although she knew security was a concern, Richardson said the fact that so many adults were standing nearby made her feel everyone was safe.
Richardson and Campbell said national student demonstrations regarding school safety are not going to go away anytime soon.
“But it is continuing in a positive and peaceful way, and I think it’s a good thing,” Richardson said.
After the teens returned to the classroom, Newell said he viewed the walkout as an event that allowed his students to express their thoughts, feelings and fears.
“We just have a great student body who care about each other who took this opportunity to reach out to others in support,” the East principal said. “That’s what these young people are all about.”
