How This Ohio High School Is Supporting #Enough After Their Walkout Was Banned

It’s been exactly one month since the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and then some have chosen a proactive way to commemorate the date. On Wednesday (March 14), thousands of students walked out of their classrooms as piece of the #Enough! National School Walkout to raise awareness about school safety and gun violence. The march, organized by Women’s March Youth Empower, occurred at 10 a.M. And lasted 17 minutes — one minute for each victim killed in the Parkland shooting.

However not all school districts were on board with the offered protest, meaning some students had no choice although to stay inside, or else face punishment. At schools like Mentor High, though, students have taken a creative approach around their school’s limitations and chosen not to walk out, however to walk in.

Mentor High School in Mentor, Ohio, sits close to the Lake Erie shoreline, roughly 20 miles northeast of Cleveland. About 2,550 students attend the school, and they’re led by 17-year-old senior April Gable, the student body president. Gable describes Mentor as a “super mobile school” that boasts “incredible” academics and “unbeatable” sports teams. The city of Mentor hosts a festival every year called Better in Mentor, and Gable says that phrase completely describes the sense of community in the city and in the school itself.

Courtesy April Gable

April Gable (center)

Like most other high schools around the nation, things have been different at Mentor ever since the tragedy at Stoneman Douglas last month. Gable was in Florida for an international baton competition once the shooting happened, and upon returning to school the following week, she “immediately” found a change.

“When you walked by way of the halls, there was just tension,” she mentioned. “Mentor High School is a pretty bubbly school, and we have so several kids, so the hallways are always very loud and very complicated to maneuver. Yet the day we came back, it was just silence. You can just feel it in the air.”

Gable and the rest of her student government members immediately got to work brainstorming how they could stand in solidarity with Parkland, and so they got wind of a national walkout slated for February 21, one week right following the shooting. They determined it was a brilliant possibility to showcase their newfound passion for activism, and began spreading the word among students through the every social media channel available.

“We wanted to do it any time possible,” Gable explained. “We got told to wait up until the March 14 one, ‘just wait so we can figure things out.’ Although we mentioned, ‘No no no, the February 21 one is going to get people talking. It’s going to begin a spark, it’s going to get people thinking about the idea of this.’ So it felt significant to begin it on February 21.”

Unfortunately, that hastily proposed walkout didn’t turn out so smoothly. First, school administrators got wind of the walkout plans before the 21st, and so they sent an email to students warning them that there could be implications as if they were cutting class, because walking out is believed “civil disobedience.” Gable admits “a lot of students were apprehensive” right after that. Then, they couldn't agree on an assigned time; most other schools were staging their walkouts at noon, yet Gable and her student government members determined 2:05 p.M. Could be better. Two different walkouts ended up happening at two different times that day, and the school wasn’t happy.

Mentor High School students with homemade #NeverAgain signs

Gable estimates between 400 to 500 students participated in the walkouts that day — that’s about one-fifth of the school, and it also didn’t feel like enough of a statement. On top of that, she had a tense meeting with her principal, Andy Fetchik, who instructed her that she put him in an awkward position by not running her plans by him first. So right after that beginning walkout, Gable and then some of her fellow students met with Fetchik attempt to reach a compromise for the national walkout on March 14. Citing safety concerns, weather, and pushback from school administrators, Fetchik instructed them students that it wasn’t in their best interest to stage another demonstration. Still, he wanted to assist them — Fetchik was the principal at nearby Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio, whenever a shooter killed three people in 2012, so the movement hit close to residence for him. Gable eventually determined that working with Fetchik and the rest of the school administrators could be the ideal solution.

“We had to notice that the February 21 walkout was meant to get their attention, and right now if we go and defy their request to support us and work hand in hand with us, we’re just sort of eliminating our resources,” she explained. “To go against their wishes just sort of felt pointless to us. We still supporter for students across the nation to walk out, to march, to get in contact with your administration. Yet for us, it just felt right [to do something else].”

Courtesy April Gable

Gable and Mentor High School principal Andy Fetchik

With each other, Fetchik, Gable, and the rest of the student government came up with the idea of doing a “walk-in” so that more students would be involved. Gable admits there “definitely was some pushback” from students who were adamant about doing another walkout, yet ultimately, she explained, “this would permit more students to take part in it and it’d be more personal.”

“Some students had mentioned, ‘I aspire to participate in the movement yet I can’t — my parents won’t let me, I don’t feel comfortable doing it, I don’t aspire to walk out of class because then everybody would look at me.’ So we mentioned, ‘Hold up, why don’t we just do it so everybody can do it?’” She explained. “Because I know there’s not a sole person in this school who’s in support of school shootings, so we mentioned, ‘Why don’t we bring it to them as an alternative opposed to forcing students to walk out?’”

On Wednesday at 10 a.M. — As a substitute opposed to being piece of the movement to walk out of schools — Mentor contained its inaugural walk-in. While in the school’s third class of the day, Gable, Fetchik, senior James Elliott, and junior Fintan Bracken got on the P.A. System and read the names of the 17 victims from Stoneman Douglas, along with because the names of the three victims from Chardon. They also advocated for more empathy and kindness among students (“We mentioned, ‘Talk to the kid you typically don’t converse with who sits alone at lunch, mention hello to somebody,’” Gable mentioned, and then contained a 17-second moment of silence.

Some might argue that choosing not to do a walkout goes agains the very, meant-to-be-radical purpose of a walkout, nevertheless Gable still feels they made the correct choice opting for an alternate plan.

“I agree that it is a little bit different than what was promoted and what is being done nationally,” she mentioned. “With us doing this walk-in, it sort of builds strength within our own school so that other schools that would like to participate in the walkout nevertheless can’t, can do something as well to show their unification.”

She added, “I think [walkouts and walk-ins] both hold effectiveness in their own respects. I think the idea of the walkouts and the marches is most important because it shows action. Although I also feel that us getting on the announcements and pausing classes for a moment was really rewarding because it reached more students. I’m delighted of what we did.”

For five ways you could take action on gun violence, head over to Everytown.Org.