On Friday Sep. 5, around noon, McCallum students met outside of the fine arts building in protest of gun violence in schools. The walkout was part of a series of protests that occurred across the nation in reaction to recent school shootings. The walkout was organized by Students Demand Action, a nationwide organization trying to end gun violence, and Austin Youth Activists (AYA), an outside-of-school club created by a group of McCallum students attempting to increase youth awareness around different social movements.
McCallum sophomore and AYA president Susan Welsh started AYA due to what she felt was a lack of youth activism in the Austin community. Although unaffiliated with the school, all AYA members are currently McCallum students. Welsh felt that it was needed to create an organization that directly helps youth in activism.
“It’s an amazing group of people to work with who have common interests about how speaking up is important,” Welsh said.
Welsh has been interested in activism for a long time and has participated in different protests throughout her whole life.
“As youth we don’t often have autonomy of the decisions that are made in [the] government,” Welsh said. “But we do have the right to speak up for what we believe in.”
Around 12:20 p.m., students began a short chant that quickly spread among the group: “End gun violence, no more silence.” Around the same time that this chant started, Principal Andy Baxa joined the students outside to observe the protest. Baxa did not allow students to go back inside the building once they were clearly a part of the protest, telling students that it would disrupt the educational environment should they go back inside with their signs. The students Baxa talked to did not plan to protest inside the building, but rather get friends out of classes who were hesitant to leave when the protest originally started.
“We fully support students’ right to protest and to exercise their First Amendment right,” Baxa said. “Administration is around to ensure that students are protected and that the education environment is not disturbed.”
Even though Baxa fully supports student rights, he believes there are better ways to create change than by protesting.
“The best thing the younger generation can do to allow their voices to be heard is through voting,” Baxa said. “There isn’t a quick fix to these problems.”
However, some students feel like waiting around to vote isn’t enough. Sophomore Penelope Conner, AYA’s social media manager, has participated in many political movements including Rep. James Talarico’s (D-Austin) current run for the U.S. Senate.
“I think it is really important to vote,” Conner said. “Sometimes it feels like these things directly impact me, but I don’t get a say. This [walkout] is something that I can do to get a head start.”
The turnout for the walkout was small compared to the walkouts that McCallum has hosted in the past. According to an email sent out at the end of the school day by Principal Baxa, around 25 students participated for the full time (the number did not include students who walked by or pretended to be part of the walkout to simply leave campus before Baxa arrived).
“It was really hard to get the word out,” Conner said. “So it was really exciting to see people I’ve never even met before.”
Austin ISD rules state that students cannot advertise a walkout through posters or school announcements. Teachers also cannot talk about the walkout in terms of when and where it is. Many “prank walkouts” happened last year as well, which damaged the validity of this one. Many students didn’t show up because they said that they didn’t know it was real. The only way the walkout was advertised was through word of mouth and student social media.
Sophomore Laelani Croan is a member of AYA and filled out the registration form for McCallum to be considered as part of the Students Demand Action national walkout. The issue of gun control is a very personal one for Croan. She was a victim of gun violence when she was younger, which greatly impacted her physical and mental health.
“School shootings are getting out of hand, and our state legislature hasn’t done anything,” Croan said.
Croan was the main student organizer of the protest and found it frustrating to work around the rules pertaining to advertising a walkout.
“It’s hard sometimes because of the certain district and school rules you have to follow,” Croan said. “But I’m glad that admin still let us out here.”
Students finished the protest when the bell rang, signalling the end of sixth period and the beginning of lunch, though not before thanking each other for coming and cheering about the protest’s success. Some students stayed a little longer holding their signs up proudly to their peers leaving for lunch.
