Española Valley High School students staged a walk-out, March 14, as part of a nationwide day of action, trying to draw attention to school shootings and gun violence.
Six student delegates stood before an audience of 500, outside the front of the high school, to share messages written by other students.
A range of political positions were represented, including demands for stronger restrictions on gun sales, calls for metal detectors, additional surveillance and police at the high school, and appeals for religion to play a larger role in local schools.
Students held a variety of signs, from “It Could’ve Been Us” to “NRA.” Others held signs with the names of friends and family lost to gun violence.
The day of the walk-out was the one-month anniversary of the deaths of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Fifteen-year-old freshman Paulina Muñoz read a message from five fellow students to United States President Donald Trump and members of the United States Congress.
“Many of us and our families in Española own guns for recreational purposes, but we also believe that our background-check system should be improved,” they wrote. “We as students in the U.S., are terrified of gun violence. Terrified for our everyday safety. But you guys in Congress are not doing anything about it.”
Gun violence in the United States has become an epidemic, they wrote, and now is the time to stop it.
“There needs to be much more strict policies to make sure only responsible gun owners are allowed to make these purchases,” they wrote. “The sad truth about this day and age, is we have come across an epidemic. But this cannot be cured with vaccines. We’ve done this to ourselves. Our politicians have done this to our nation.”
After the walk-out, Muñoz said she doesn’t believe the root of the issue is gun violence, but rather what people feel in their hearts.
“Whenever there’s a DWI, they blame the driver, but not the car,” she said. “But when there’s a shooting, they blame the gun, not the shooter.”
However, when asked how members of Congress should take action, she said she would agree with more strict policies on gun sales. She also said there are not enough security guards at the high school.
There are three filled security positions at the high school, and one vacant position, District Safety and Security Director Johnathan Tapia told the Española School Board, Feb. 21.
Muñoz said the current amount of security staff is not enough for the 1,000 students at the high school.
“We do need guns to hunt, not to hurt people, so we should get better background checks,” Judith Peres, a 16-year-old junior, said, reading from a message written by fellow student Jolene Archuleta. “I love hunting and I love my family, and I should not have to pick between the two. Life is beautiful, don’t take it from someone.”
Wilmer Chavarria, an Española Valley High School teacher who helped organize the event, estimated at least half of the student body joined the walk-out.
It was voluntary and not all students and teachers chose to participate. Some of the juniors were doing state testing at the time, Chavarria said.
High winds, chatter in the crowd and a malfunctioning public address system made it almost impossible for most in attendance to hear the messages from the students. At one point, a teacher tried to get the crowd’s attention, but Chavarria stopped him.
“I actually asked him to step out, because we’re trying to be as outside as possible,” he said. The point, he said, was to allow students, not teachers, to run the event.
Reading from a statement by five other students, 15-year-old freshman Haylie Sanchez said she is numb to the term, “school shooting.”
“A school is supposed to be a safe place where you go to learn, not a place where we should be scared of being killed, or terrified to open a door to a simple knock,” the five students wrote. “Officials should take account of what’s happening, because even though we do have laws, they’re not being enforced for the greater good.”
Sanchez said, after the walk-out, there should be metal detectors installed, more security cameras and more police officers on patrol at the high school.
“We just need to watch out for the schools, see who could bring guns over here (sic),” she said. “We have to be more careful about who we give guns to.”
Peres said she does not think more police at the high school would prevent a person from coming and shooting the school.
“If you’re gonna come shoot the school, you’re coming to kill people right?” she said. “I feel like they would shoot the cops anyways.”