McClatchy Teachers Voice Support for Gun Walkout

On March 14th, students participated in a walkout to protest gun violence in schools and mourn the loss of those killed in the Parkland, Florida shooting. Many McClatchy teachers voiced support for this cause, although they themselves were not allowed to attend.

“Many of the advancements during the course of the 20th century in terms of women’s rights, civil rights, and more came as a result of protests,” said history teacher Mr. Limonoff. “So I continue to support those efforts to make a better world for us all.”

Other teachers voiced a similar sentiment.

“Shooting in school is a topic that needs to be addressed, and to me the safety of our students is the most important thing,” said German teacher Frau Templeton.

Along with their support, teachers expressed some worry surrounding the walkout.

“I think that if it’s used properly, and students have context and they’re not using it as an excuse to get out of class or just to give vent to shallow emotion, it could be profitable,” said English teacher Mrs. Downey.

“But the risk is that it’s difficult to reach every student on a level that is meaningful for political protest enough so that politicians actually look at a population of youth without disregarding them.”

Other teachers were wary about administration’s encouragement and seeming sponsorship of the event.

“Civil disobedience, like a walkout is supposed to be, isn’t supposed to be free from repercussions. If you’re doing civil disobedience you gotta figure you’re gonna pay the price for it,” said science teacher Mr. Warren.

Teachers by and large were not worried by the prospect of class time being disrupted because of the walkout, “We have too many disruptions throughout the year. One more is really not going to matter,” said math teacher Mr. Granados.

Teachers also felt a lack of organization leading up to the event. “One of the things I’m concerned is they keep saying ‘we have a plan’ and we don’t know what the plan is,” said science teacher Mrs. Coleman, the day before the walkout. “I emailed and said ‘when are we going to know what the plan is?’ Has anybody answered my email? Nope.”

Teachers were told by the administration that they were not allowed to participate in the walk out, even if their classroom was empty. Many teachers with empty classrooms gathered by windows to watch the event.

Still, teachers were supportive of a student-led movement, and have hope for the future.

“I fully support the students continuing to feed this movement that they started,” said government teacher Ms. Jablonski.