The students of Whitney Young participated in a walkout as a response to the mass shooting that occurred in a high school in Parkland, Florida. With a full gym (which holds over 2,000 students) and outside of the school students chanted phrases including, “all our lives mean nothing if they keep their murder weapons. Never again. Never again. Never again,” “protect kids, not guns,” and “we call bs”. While it is wise to get students to participate in the world and learn about current events, it should not be done in a way that twists reality and causes students to flock towards a specific doctrine with no mention or explanation of other perspectives.

First I would like to emphasize that what occurred in Parkland was very wrong. The only people that would not agree with this statement are those that would commit similar acts and those that have no regard for human life, which is a very small minority of the population. But the reality is that it happened, and questioning decisions made by security and the police is a completely different issue.

The issues that concern me are exactly how far a school can go to push a political agenda and whether or not students actually believe and understand what they are saying.

What does it take to be allowed by a public school to shout your political views over a megaphone? In this case we see that it is a response to an event that the public never wants to happen again.

I will go into analysis of why I believe the walkout was a problem in my next two Beacon articles, which can be found on the website.