On March 14, ERHS students walked out during school hours to protest with thousands of other high schools across the country to improve gun control legislation in America.

ERHS students organized a peaceful student protest with the help and support of the administration and teachers at Roosevelt.

Students first made an announcement for students to walk out at exactly 10 a.m. with thousands of other schools across the country. They then gathered on the football field for 17 minutes in respect for the 17 lives lost during the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Finally, students went inside the gym to hear empowering speeches from students who organized the rally. Many students held signs and chanted ” No more silence. End gun violence.” The gym was full of students, teachers, and administrators.

Students who participated had varied opinions on the walk out.

Senior Heidi Reyez said “It’s very important to bring awareness to the gun control issue. I think by our school speaking up, it will encourage others around America to as well.”

Junior Nina McGranahan also said she supported the walkout. “I’m so happy that so many people walked out, made posters, and participated in the walkout and I’m so happy everything ran smoothly,” she said. “A bunch of people reached out to Mr. McNeill with ideas about how we as a school could contribute to the movement and create change in the community, county, and the country. Mr. McNeill put us all in contact with each other and expressed his support for our protest.”

Other students said they disagreed with the structure of the event.

Sophomore Mika Kretzmann-Clough, who participated in the walkout but not the subsequent assembly in the auditorium, said “I’m all for the walkout and I believe that dissent is a natural and important part of democracy. However, the point of dissent and walkouts such as these is to rebel against the authority of the state to enact change. The school-sponsored events such as these are not efforts to help students in our dissent but rather to control it. I participated in the march and the walkout but I thought the assembly was an effort to placate us rather than embolden us.”

Senior Chidera Ezekegbo also said he did not participate “because I felt like a 17 minute ‘protest’ wouldn’t do much.”