'Kids not guns': Valpo HS students protest gun violence at schools and demand stricter gun controls. Staff photo by William Skipworth
VALPARAISO — Wednesday at noon, about 100 Valparaiso High School students poured out of the school doors and held a walkout.
The walkout was in protest of gun violence and meant to demand lawmakers take action on gun reform.
"Walking into school is the most scary thing to do nowadays," junior Olivia Brinson said. "And that shouldn't be it."
The protest comes the week after six people — three students and three teachers — were killed by a gunman at a Nashville private school, which according to national news reports, marked 73 people killed by guns at American schools in 2023 alone. Additionally, 2022 was a record year for school shootings with 46 shootings, and that number only includes ones that occurred during school hours. Including shootings outside of schools, there were 648 mass shootings in 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
"We came out today to protest the fact that guns have more rights than kids do," said freshman Melaynna Kyle. "And that we can't even be safe in our own environment."
Kyle and her classmates held signs emblazoned with sayings like "Protect Children Not Guns," "We deserve more than thoughts and prayers," and "Students or guns? Why is this even a question?" They chanted "Kids not guns." and "How many more?"
Brinson said lawmakers need to do more about school shootings.
"If it's a law for us to show up here everyday, I think they should protect us and we should be safe," Brinson said. "And we're not right now."
One of the students, Jonah Kyle, has a personal experience with gun violence. His brother, Noah Beller, died of a gunshot wound March 3, 2021 outside his home on Valparaiso's north side.
"I have experienced such a trauma that no one should have to go through," he said. "And the fact that people are going through that at such a young age, at elementary schools, at middle schools, at high schools all around the country is so messed up. It's beyond normal comprehension because it should just never happen."
Lottie Wells was one of the students who organized the event in Valparaiso. The protest is part of a larger nationwide protest at schools across the U.S. organized by Students Demand Action. Wells said she thought the turnout was really good.
"We're fed up and we wanted to sign our school up, so we did," she said.
Several of the students said that they were told by faculty they'd receive truancies — a disciplinary mark for unexcused absence — for leaving class to participate. Wells thought that was "a little bit ridiculous."
"The administration tried to defer us from going," she said. "But we prevailed anyway and we continued, and it was still a very successful day."
Brinson said she believes they have a First Amendment right to do things like that.
"We should be able to talk about issues that affect a lot of people around the world," Brinson said. "They directly affect us."
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