Algonquin’s Walkout: Silence, pledge, speeches, visiting senator, and more

Above: With many Boston area schools cancelled today, at least one news chopper headed to Northborough for footage of a student walkout. (image from WCVB video)

This morning, Algonquin students participated in the National Walkout protest. But this wasn’t a storm out. Organizers used social media to share an organized plan for the mostly-silent event.

On Facebook, organizers clarified that their beef wasn’t with their school’s administration:

To be clear, the walkout is not against the school administration and it is not organized by the administration. This is a peaceful, student-run protest to in support of the Parkland community and the movement to end violence. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions/concerns.

In order to participate, students were required to sign an online pledge before midnight yesterday.* Although billed as a 17 minute walkout, another 10 minutes were built in to get from and back to classes. And students were invited to a one hour forum with State Senator Jamie Eldridge later in the morning.

The event agenda stressed silence but included some outdoor speeches:

  • 9:57 am – registered students were to silently rise and meet outside
  • 10:00 – 10:04 am: moment of silence in honor of victims of the Parkland, FL shooting
  • 10:05 – 10:10 am: student speeches focused on student empowerment and student-led change
  • 10:11 – 10:16 am: silence, with reading aloud of the victims’ names during the last minute of silence
  • 10:18 – 10:24 am: return to classes silently

To continue advocacy for their cause, follow up activities were also encouraged. One of those was Eldridge addressing students and answering questions during 5th period (11:00 am – 12:00 pm which overlapped lunch). Topics to be covered included mental health and gun laws.

In addition, students could use their lunch time to participate in a voter registration drive, a letter writing campaign (to victims and politicians), and recording of video condolence messages.

*I wasn’t able to view a copy of the student pledge. It was made available online to students with school email accounts.

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Mike
6 years ago

You know I’m very much a conservative, and very pro both first and second amendment. I think this organized memorial is very good because it was orderly. I think there’s many issues, the least of which is the gun. The larger issues are what’s going on with young men in America? What drugs have they been on for years? What other factors lead to religious violence? And should we at the very least have some sort of scanning devices at the doors of schools?

n
6 years ago

Take a look at the story of Harris Rosen, a man making a difference.

Kate
6 years ago

Mike, I’d hazard a guess that what’s happening with young men in America is the same as what’s happening with young men all around the globe. The difference is that in the U.S., they have easy access to guns. And we see the results every single day.

Mike
6 years ago
Reply to  Kate

Kate, what would you propose if you think that firearms are the issue? Do you propose a peaceful nation like Finland where by there own count 50-60% of the men are alcoholics and have self induces medical coma? The problem is self created by our society and human choices. Keep in mind we are a constitutional government thank God. It seems most want to go after the guns, but the root issues remain, boys on prescription drugs for anxiety, ADD etc. (I am told 40-60% of young people under 30 years old? Both legal and illegally obtained), violent hollywood movies (hypocrites), violent video games, an over aggressive feminist agenda (not my wife and girls feminism which I subscribe too but the radical national feminism) population trying and I believe succeeding at eventually subjugating men where all parties loose, and an internet that is as creepy as the day is long. I do not say any of these comments with malice, except toward the arts, which makes up life and life emulates art, not the other way around as we have been told to over the years.

Kate
6 years ago
Reply to  Mike

Thanks for the question, Mike. I believe that sensible gun control certainly would be a start. Perhaps taking a serious look at reality rather than fear-based gun ownership (“I need to protect myself from the government, thieves, etc. etc.”) might be in order. Sorry, I don’t have much experience with Finnish society, so I can’t speak to that, though I do know from my university studies that studies have been done on the high incidence of mental health problems in the west of Ireland, and there’s little to no gun violence there, because there are few guns, and no gun culture to speak of in the Republic of Ireland. From my perspective, as long as the human brain exists, we will continue to have mental health issues. Doing all we can to control the damage caused when somebody suffers from a mental health issue simply makes sense to me. Gun violence and video games? Only seems to be a problem in the US; feminists and guns? You’d have to explain. I simply don’t see the connection. I agree on the self-created piece – it appears to me that we’ve decided that it’s more important that we have access to guns than that we have gun ownership controlled. It’s good that we’re having a conversation about this issue, which is taking far too many lives in this country

Louise Barron
6 years ago

Mike You are correct. Metal detectors must be installed in all schools. I’m sure there is other up to date safety, detection, monitoring assets that could be utilized as well. Qualified armed individuals must also monitor the schools. Mental Illness is at the heart of the problem with school violence and violence in general. The question is what causes the mental and emotional issues. For that solution, it will need a lot more than a column in a local newspaper. That is a societal issue.

Mike
6 years ago
Reply to  Louise Barron

Hi Louise, Yes, I agree. I know people will go off their rockers but if students were aware that there were say 10 safes with firearms in them we would have a well armed citizenship to deter gun violence. At least try it liberals and see if it works in the short term right? If you cant take the 600 million firearms in the US, at least try this to see if it works for now. Nazi Germany never did attack Switzerland because I believe Hitler and his minions knew there was a gun in every home mandated by the Swiss government.

n
6 years ago
Reply to  Mike

Would you support gun ownership rights in line with Switzerland?

Gun ownership per capita is not as high as the U.S. but their incidence of gun violence is a fraction of what we experience.

Kate
6 years ago
Reply to  n

@n: Switzerland & guns – if you’ve read about this, it’s clear that there are differences regarding gun availability and ownership, not to mention a difference in culture. First of all, Switzerland mandates military service, so the population takes the responsibility of gun ownership very seriously, and the Swiss use guns for sport and the defense of their country. Obviously this is a very different viewpoint than the individualistic one (“I need a gun for self-defense”) inherent in US culture. Gun laws are strict, and when there have been incidents of gun violence, the Swiss government has acted quickly to put more safeguards in place. In fact, the conversation on this topic in Switzerland right now revolves around a concern that US-type gun incidents may be on the rise there. It will be interesting to see how they respond. As we have seen with recent events here, the US government is loathe to take a strong position on this issue

Kate
6 years ago
Reply to  Mike

Mike, I wonder if you’ve considered the notion that perhaps Hilter didn’t attack Switzerland in part because it was simply impractical – the country is a vast expanse of snowy mountains, with few natural resources. I’m sure that the fact that the populace was well-prepared to defend itself was a factor too, but I’d very much doubt that it was the main reason Switzerland maintained a neutral position in WWII

mike
5 years ago
Reply to  Kate

Hi Kate, No, nothing was impractical for Hitler, Switzerland was a wealthy and well to do place and nothing was beyond Hitlers reach ie. England, Africa etc. Those ideas as well as the notion that Hitler had his money stored there is all hyperbole (even if he had 100M DM he wold be glad to take 1000x that). The only solid theory is the guns people had allowed them to defend themselves and they were a sold deterrent. It is the same theory in the defense of your own hom or person, if someone knows there is a chance of being shot, they think more about it. That’s my defense of 10 safes with guns in them in each school. As a legal gun owner and a thoughtful historian, I think, what good would my hunting rifle be to a militarized modern force, truthfully, not much, BUT, I do think the deterrent is there and I do not think most Americans would want to die attacking other law abiding Americans, at least not yet. But I do believe the evil in this world and evil people that are charismatic-ally supercharged with super naughtiness are incredibly persuasive, just look at the history of the Jew and even modern day in this so called age of enlightenment, how the anti-Semite world wants to still attack and eradicate the Jewish people only for being Jews. Solomon said at the end of his wonderful treatise in the book of Ecclesiastes, “there is nothing new under the sun” and you and I have to deal with the root cases of anger, violence and murder which is a broken world, government, family and persons. Pills do not fix, they only cover the root cause, and only for a short period of time until the sickness morphs into another sickness. We need to take care of our young and start in pre-school to make sure they are all integrated into the classroom and world experience – accepted. Even if different, we all need to feel wanted or at least appreciated for who we are.

Louise Barron
6 years ago

STOP all of you. Gun violence IS NOT the issue. Mental illness is at the root of all evil.
If you don’t have psychological, emotional, illness issues, you are not going to take an AR 15, hand gun, semi auto or anything else and kill kids. My god. The kids sadly are being used as pawns in what shouldn’t be political, but is. We must attack this very serious problem rationally. Now take a deep breath.

Matthew Brownell
5 years ago
Reply to  Beth Melo

Beth,

Imposing further restrictions on firearms, while a feel-good palliative for anti-gun zealots, will have ZERO effect on mass shootings.

And yes, Ms. Barron is quite correct, many school kids *are* being used a political fodder for the pro gun-control agenda, as locally witnessed last week by the 1-hour appearance of elected Democrat officials at an Algonquin High School auditorium during the national student “walk-out”. (More on this in a later post)

Considering this took place at a public high school, I suggest we start with a homework assignment – especially for those seeking to neuter the 2nd Amendment, and for those whose entire lifetime experience with firearms consists of shooting metal stars and ducks at a carnival booth:

Define “assault weapon”.

And if readers are diligent about this, I’m kind of hoping we get some beefier responses than “ they’re the scary-looking black ones”. . .

One of the commentators on this string – “Kate”, acknowledges that gun rights provide ample opportunity for politics. Unfortunately, I’m rarely seeing behavior at public school or colleges today that passes for critical thought, reasoning, debate, or (alarmingly), tolerance for differing opinions.

Kate
6 years ago

Louise, I absolutely respect your opinion and I can feel your passion for this topic. I’m not sure if you’ve always lived in this country. I didn’t grow up here, so I am offering my opinion as somebody who has had a different experience. Growing up in Ireland, our history teachers taught us that our forefathers had been subjugated by the English for 800 years. Our lands, language, culture and religion were all taken away, and many of my ancestors died brutal deaths. You’d think the Irish would want to carry arms just in case a similar situation might crop up in the future, but that’s not the case. In fact, Irish society was horrified by the deaths of Patrick Pearse and other uprising leaders by firing squad. My uncle had a gun for hunting. I don’t think I ever saw it.

I agree with you that there is something really wrong with an individual who kills, and that we need to offer more mental health services, which means not diverting money from those efforts. However, I think we can all agree that the gun rights issue is a political issue. There’s no getting around it. In Northborough/Southborough schools, as in other schools around the nation, students are encouraged to think critically and speak out. Remember civics lessons? This is exactly what’s going on. I agree that we have to attack this problem, and make thoughtful and rational decisions. Sweeping it under the rug hasn’t worked, so maybe we can try a different approach.

Louise Barron
6 years ago

Beth Right wing, left wing. Who cares what side.The kids are being used by Schumer, Eldridge, and many politicians who are using politics to energize the kids to ignore the core of the issues. It has a base in serious mental illness. These kids need to report the troubled kids who exhibit, hint or threaten others. “If you see or hear something, say something”. Remember that??????? That has been the mantra regarding terrorism. That is what is going on in schools. Terrorism. It’s not the guns. I stand by that. Schools need psychologists, and teachers who will have to be more analytical and involved with troubled kids. Both sides will never come together. Get serious.

Kate
6 years ago
Reply to  Louise Barron

Louise; I’m not sure if you’re responding to my post, but in response to yours, I would answer that kids do actually report the “troubled” kids. The teachers and administrators know who they are. The parents know who they are. There are psychologists and counselors available to students and families. If we work on lessening the availabililty of guns, we will simply be adding another step for the protection of our youth. I am trying to be serious and I appreciate the dialogue

Carl Guyer
6 years ago

If there is some special issue with mental illness in America causing the high rate of gun deaths here, you may want to look at the this link and consider how crazy we all must be compared to the rest of the civilized world. Buy then again, large numbers of people in America think guns are not the issue which may actually prove their theory on mental illness correct.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/131jhj-wrjbEPpqPhtc8qxftuooDNmV2B/view?usp=sharing

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