ORANGE — Mahar High School was one of the many schools nationwide to participate in a student-led walkout, part of a national movement in protest of the recent school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and the issue of gun violence.
Students walked out at 10 a.m. Wednesday for 17 minutes — one minute for each of the students killed in the Florida shooting. Eleventh-grader Marie Nottleson read each of the victims’ names, while a chime sounded for each name. Then, a moment of silence was held.
“I am just so impressed,” said Student Council Adviser Robin Allain-Moody. “I am so honored and proud to be part of this with the kids.”
Some students came to Allain-Moody a few weeks ago, asking how to participate in the walkout. She gave them ideas, but emphasized that the end results were all thanks to the students.
“The school didn’t really want to give too many ideas,” she said. “They wanted to have the kids do it their way.”
Allain-Moody also said that the students and staff wanted to create a “we’re all in this together kind of feeling,” but the most important part of the walkout was to honor the young shooting victims.
For the walkout, one student designed buttons with the school colors and the hashtag “#enough,” which is the trending hashtag relating to school walkouts across the country. One thousand buttons were distributed.
Another student proposed the idea of making a banner to mail to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to decorate the walls, since after the shooting, all of the wall hangings were taken down. On the banner, students wrote quotes, notes, and words of encouragement for the survivors.
During the walkout, community members stood at the edge of the school driveway, giving students their space but supporting them by holding signs of support.
“We decided to do it because we had a lot of people at the school who were really shocked and hurt by the news (of the Parkland shooting),” said Nottleson.
Nottleson said many of her fellow students are politically active, and wanted to do something about the issue.
“A lot of people wanted to help,” she added.