Burlington High School students walked out of class in the driving snow Wednesday, joining tens of thousands of students nationwide demonstrating in favor of increased gun control measures. For BHS senior Allie Brown, who organized the event, the demonstration was just the first step for students to make their voices heard.
“It’s so easy to get involved,” Brown announced from a podium, as other students held up posters with contact information for state legislators. “Take a picture of these posters right now, make a call, and then you can keep going about your day.”
The demonstration came one month to the day after 17 staff and students were killed in a Valentine’s Day shooting in Parkland, Fla. Since then, Vermont has seen 10 threats reported at schools around the state, according to school safety liaison officer Rob Evans.
Vermont has also seen a rise in student activism on the issue of gun control.
At 10 a.m., the first of several hundred BHS students started pouring outside, where they huddled in front of the main school entrance as snow fell. The 17-minute protest was intended to honor the victims of the Parkland shooting — one minute for each person killed.
Students held a moment of silence; some attendees pinned orange ribbons to their jackets in solidarity.
Several speakers praised the effort and urged students to continue speaking out.
Sharon Panitch, a member of the gun control advocacy group Gun Sense Vermont, told students never to underestimate the power of youth activism. “People are asking, why now?” Panitch said, listing off a host of school shootings that haven’t triggered as much public outcry. “The difference is you,” she said. “You’re speaking your truth and we adults had damn well better listen.”
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger sent out a statement in support of the students, though he didn’t make an appearance at the event.
“I applaud the leadership and activism of the students at Burlington High School, and elsewhere in Vermont, who have thoughtfully participated in National School Walkout Day and made their voices heard in Montpelier,” the statement read. “Already, through their forceful arguments, these students have accomplished more in a few short weeks to move Vermont towards safer gun policies than has been achieved in decades.”
As students and press gathered around the podium in front of the school, sophomore Silas Brown (no relation to Allie) asked students to continue the movement, and not just at the local and state level. He told his peers to call Vermont’s congressional delegation and encourage them to advocate strongly in Washington, D.C., for increased gun control. “Let today be a call to action and not just a day of remembrance,” he said.
For his part, Brown told Seven Days later that he would attend another student-led protest, the March for Our Lives rally, in Montpelier on March 24. Until then, he said he’d work to build momentum through interactions at school.
“We want to keep having these conversations,” Brown said.
Before the protest, Burlington school district spokesperson Russ Elek only reluctantly agreed to allow media onto school property, after calls to Superintendent Yaw Obeng. “We want to keep students safe,” Elek said, urging press to stand back.
Several other protests were scheduled at high schools around the state, though many of those schools were closed for snow days. Some rescheduled walkouts for Thursday.
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I am a Vermonter and I am a responsible gun owner. I have raised my now adult children to be the same. Neither myself, my family nor my guns have ever committed a crime. Neither myself, my family or my guns have ever harmed anyone other than an occasional deer, bear or other legal hunt able animal. You shall not take my guns from me. It is my constitutional right to possess and own and I will defend that right to my death! The anger and emotion that these kids feel is being manipulated by the liberal press and politicians. If they are truly angry then they should be angry at the incompetence of the local sheriffs department whos deputies stood and took no action while hearing the shots from within that school. Every shot was someones child being murdered that could have been stopped by engaging the shooter! Its time to put this anger where it needs to be put not on innocent law abiding citizens and gun owners like myself! You will only take this Vermonters guns(yes i own semi automatic rifels that some will claim are assault rifels) by prying them from MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!!
It’s funny, my son told us his school was staging a walkout the following day and he planned to participate. I asked him what the principal of the walk was and he thought is was about solidarity with the students in Florida. When I asked him if it had anything to do with gun control, he didn’t know & I encouraged him to find out and make his decision based on all the facts. He did the next morning and he along with 2/3 of the rest of the school, opted not to participate in the gun prohibition rally.
It’s amazing how Seven Days keeps holding up the students for doing this, for doing that, while leaving out the fact that it is a very small percentage of the students.
Idiocracy came out in 2006, and you are hilariously and entirely misreading it if you think it is anti these kids and pro gun advocates. But thanks for the laugh.
Okay let me see if I can get this straight. Are they kids or adults? You cannot have it both ways. Why should you listen to them when they do not even have the right to buy a lighter. Very contradicting to me, you take away their voice until it is needed. Wrong wrong wrong. Liberal viewpoint is really just messed up policy. How about personal responsibility.