Much buzz has been generated by three Oliver Ames Students who have planned a school walk out and gun control forum in response to the recent Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting. The students are Hannah To, Victoria Thomas, and Andrew Abramson. The Olivian recently sat down with them to talk about the movement.
How did you get the idea to bring the Student Walkout movement to OA?
Victoria: I think personally, I saw the pictures of the kids down in Florida, and how brave they were being, and I thought ‘I need to do something.’ If these kids could do it, why can’t I?
Andrew: Hannah sent me something on Instagram about a nation wide walkout, and we just thought it would be cool to get our school to participate.
How did you get the approval of the Administration?
Hannah: We figured it would be better, even though this is a student led movement, it would be meaningful to get the administration on board, given the fact that it’s not them we’re fighting. School safety is an issue that affects not only students but also faculty, so its more powerful to work with them and see how we can make the walkout more effective and safer. We just set up a meeting with Mr. Paul, he was really good about it, we just talked about what we were thinking, what he was thinking, and sort of came to a conclusion.
Victoria: Thinking about it logically, teachers are going to spend a lot more time in a school than a student is, and in that time you raise a risk of being involved in something, which is horrible. A lot of teachers don’t feel safe either, but legally they can’t voice their opinion. It’s almost a flip of the traditional role where teachers are protecting students, instead we are protecting teachers. I’ve had like ten teachers come up to me and say “this is great, I’m so happy about this.”
“It’s almost a flip of the traditional role where teachers are protecting students, instead we are protecting teachers.” -Victoria Thomas
How did the School Safety Forum come about, and how will it work?
Hannah: We were talking to Mr Paul, and the whole thing with the walkout is that he didn’t want it to become too political, because the school can’t take a political stance. So my idea was, how about we have a forum so that everyone can voice their views. With the walkout it can feel like only one side of the argument is presented, but with a forum people from all sides of the spectrum can be represented. We are going to present two examples of more extreme views, and from there well have group discussion as well as smaller discussion and have people respond to each other while of course keeping it civil.
“That’s what the forum is about, it’s not just spreading our views, it’s getting people to form their own views as well.” -Hannah To
Andrew: the goal of the walkout and the forum is not just to get people on board with gun control or a certain view that we have. It’s also to spread awareness throughout the school. That’s what the forum is about, it’s not just spreading our views, it’s getting people to form their own views as well.
Do you think that both the walkout and forum will result in concrete change?
Victoria: I think it will definitely increase momentum. However we are also working on a letter writing campaign and petition. The walkout will draw the most attention, and the forum will generate discussion, and from there the patient will take that momentum and sort of direct it in the next direction
Andrew: We’re not necessarily looking for a law in Congress to result just from what we are doing here, but the change we want to see is for more people to be aware and informed about this issue so that they can go on and vote for representatives who will cause change.
Hannah: I think the powerful thing about this is that it’s not just about our school, we all have friends who go to other schools and we know that they’re doing things at their schools too. There’s also another nationwide walk on March 24, another one on April 20th, so it’s sort of, “How can we make sure this momentum doesn’t die down, how can we make sure that this conversation keeps on going.” Its not necessarily about enacting change overnight, it’s more about taking that first step and making sure the movement doesn’t die down.
The Walkout will be held on March 15 during advisory, and the School Safety Forum will be held on March 22
Hannah, Victoria, and Andrew encourage all their peers to register to vote as soon as possible, which can be done at http://massvote.org/voterinfo/register/.