School officials allow for peaceful protests

Thousands of students across the country walked out of classrooms Wednesday morning for a planned demonstration on the one month anniversary of a school shooting that killed 17 in Florida. The Jeff Davis Parish School Board found a way for its students to engage in the protest without leaving the classroom.

The 17-minute protests were scheduled to take place between 10-10:17 a.m. at schools across the country as a way for students to express their First Amendment rights and apply pressure to Congress to approve gun control legislation.

Jeff Davis School Board Superintendent Kirk Credeur said school officials looked for a way to let students express what they were feeling when it came to gun control and school violence in this country, without damaging the learning environment.

“We tried to be proactive and get ahead of this planned walkout,” Credeur said. “We built in a 17-minute moment of silence and reflection into today’s school schedule. That way they’re under our supervision.”

Credeur said school officials are supportive of student’s rights to protest, but they wanted to ensure students were safe while doing so.

“Our students want to be able to do this and to honor the victims of this tragedy and be a part of the movement,” he said. “We provided them all with a way to work out their feelings and express their first amendment rights without leaving school.”

Holding the walkout during regularly scheduled class time was the safest option for everyone, Creduer said.

“It’s about student safety and making sure things are done without disturbing the school program or the educational environment,” he said. “The biggest thing we were worried about was the possibility of older students leaving campus and perhaps exposing themselves to the exact dangers they were protesting against.”

This was the first of many planned protests begun by the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fl., who suffered a school shooting last month. A second walkout is planned to take place on April 20, the 21st anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting.