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Loyola Academy Students Stand in Solidarity with Parkland Victims
Wednesday, March 14, marked the one-month anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. As an act of solidarity with the Parkland victims, their families, classmates and friends—and a unified call for change in the way our country addresses school safety, gun violence and adolescent mental health—approximately 1,000 Loyola Academy students participated in the National School Walkout.
The walkout was student led and does not represent affiliations with any outside organizations. “The faculty and staff of Loyola Academy stand behind our students as they grow in their advocacy of peacebuilding and social justice,” Loyola Academy Principal Kathryn M. Baal wrote in an email to parents on March 12.
Ramblers who chose to participate quietly exited the school at 10:00 a.m. and gathered at Hoerster Field where they proceeded to line the athletic track. Because the color orange has come to represent the national gun violence movement, each participant was given an orange name tag with the name and age of one of the seventeen Parkland victims.
Students stood together around the track in a shared time of quiet reflection as the football clock counted down from 17:00 minutes. Each minute, the name and age of one of the Parkland victims was read aloud. At the end of the countdown, those in attendance quietly proceeded to their regularly scheduled classes.
Approximately 300 students who did not wish to participate in the walkout but wanted to show their solidarity and unity gathered in the Loyola Chapel to pray the rosary. The names of the victims’ were read aloud and the service stood as a powerful collective prayer for peace.
Throughout the day, a classroom was designated for students who wanted to express their opinions about school safety, gun violence and/or mental health to their legislators. Students had the opportunity to place phone calls or write letters to elected officials to voice their concerns.
“It is important for students to have a variety of options when it comes to expressing their voice in this matter, because Loyola is such a diverse community with diverse opinions,” says sophomore Sophia Dempsey, who was one of the student leaders involved in planning Loyola’s walkout. “I was compelled to be a part of this effort because I am a student. Every day I go to school and wish to receive education so that I can better myself and someday better the world. Students just like myself across the nation are being shot and killed in places that are supposed to cultivate their minds. That could easily have happened to me, and so I bear some of the burden to rise up against the injustice that is school violence, whether it be through education, protest, politics or prayer.”
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