Although I am very grateful that our school allowed us to proceed in the walkout, the structure of it all did slightly take away. Initially, March 14, 2018 was going to be a normal day of school with an afternoon collaboration. Instead, Administration decided to move the schedule around and put it in the form of a liturgy day in which we have 5th block, mass, lunch, 6th block, and finish with 7th block.

There are some differing opinions on this administration decision. In my opinion, it was not right. The entire point of the walkout is to drop everything and stand up for what you believe in. If someone in not willing to miss part of their class, then this issue is probably not something they are extremely passionate about. I also really did not like the way that everyone was essentially forced to participate in some sort of way. You had the option to either walkout, or stay inside and do an activity honoring the victims of the Parkland shooting. While that is of course thoughtful, it is not what the walkout is truly about.

The point is that it does not matter what is going on in that moment. You drop everything because gun violence is something you feel very strongly about. The way our school organized it made it so it was not spontaneous whatsoever and was instead planned and structured. I feel as though I, and many others, would have gotten more out of it if it was solely student lead as opposed to administratively.

Do not get me wrong, I am appreciative of the fact that our school supported this walkout, I just wish it could have been less arranged. I am also thankful that there were no punishments put into place, but I think that if someone was truly passionate about the topic of gun violence, the punishment would not matter. At least it wouldn’t to me. If I were to receive a detention for speaking my mind, I would speak my mind without a second thought. It is my right and something I value.

Another “restriction” put into place was the fact that we have police cars lined up at each border of our school ensuring that we would not cross it. This made me pretty angry because the point is to walk…hence walkout. Other schools, such as Menlo, MA, and Paly were walking on main streets such as El Camino. It is called standing up for what you believe in not standing up for what you believe in within borders. Metaphorically it is pretty ironic. We were forced to stay in one place as opposed to taking steps forward, similar to the way people have stood and watched numerous mass shootings take place without doing anything about it.