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National Student Walkout: Santa Clarita Students Demonstrate On And Off Campus

Students from across the Santa Clarita Valley held walkouts and demonstrations to stand in solidarity and rememberance of those that died during the Parkland, Florida school shooting, one month after the massacre.


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The demonstrations began at 10 a.m. in each time zone for schools across the country and were expected to last for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 killed on Feb. 14 during a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in  Parkland, Fl.

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After gaining the permission of school administrators, who then coordinated with the Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Station, local high schoolers and college students held demonstrations and walkouts that highlighted their desire to remember the Parkland victims and advocate for stronger gun control.

Related: Santa Clarita Students To Join Parkland Survivors In Nationwide Walkouts

“This is showing unity with not only Golden Valley students, but with our entire nation,” Dean Douglas, a student who helped organize the demonstration at Golden Valley. “It shows that we won’t stand for this, and that we’re tired of going to school and being threatened.”

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Schools that took part in demonstrations included: Golden Valley, West Ranch, Saugus, Valencia, Hart and Academy of the Canyons.

“After the Parkland shooting in Florida, we were all very motivated to make sure this never happens on our campus,” said Jack Ferry, a senior at Canyon High School. “This isn’t a mandatory event, so I’m very happy with how today’s event went seeing as how it was on their own time.”

The organized demonstrations held by the students at Valencia, for instance, had a podium and microphone in front of a backdrop featuring messages from the students along with today’s hashtags: #Enough and #Neveragain.

“With this thing that we see in today’s society its a bigger issue than just gun control and it’s something that I think both sides can rally behind,” said Ryan Pew, President of the Valencia High Young Conservatives Club.

Related: Santa Clarita School Officials Discuss School Safety In Wake Of Florida Shooting

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Following the speeches at Valencia, students released 17 balloons into the sky, a reminder of those that had been killed by Nikolas Cruz last month.

Other schools, including Golden Valley, West Ranch and Canyon High also held demonstrations for the 17 minutes in support of the Parkland victims and survivors.

“Kids aren’t coming just to yell or be emotional,” said Derek Meegan, one of the student organizers from West Ranch. “We have a clear set of goals and we’ve spent lots of time on this.”

The demonstrations were allowed on the campuses because they were not only telegraphed and organized, but had gained the blessing of authority figures on both the campuses and in the Hart district’s main office.

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In an effort to help the students exercise their right to express themselves, William S. Hart School District Superintendent Vicki Engbrecht had asked schools to make changes to their school schedules in order to allow students to participate in the nationwide demonstrations.

“I thought today was great because it was an opportunity for the students to work with administration to be able to get their voices heard,” said Dave Caldwell, a spokesman for the district. “We wanted them to do it in a safe manner and I’m proud of these kids for being able to speak up.”

School administrators and students also asked the Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Station deputies provided coordination and safety during the events.

Following the demonstrations on their campus, some students from Valencia High School then marched onto City Hall in order to bring their protest to the feet of local leaders.

Students stood on the steps of City Hall and decried and protested what they see as inaction by both national and local politicians who have failed to address issues regarding gun control and school safety.

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National Student Walkout: Santa Clarita Students Demonstrate On And Off Campus

13 comments

  1. So incredibly stupid. This state has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. How foolish you and the rest of the media are for covering this waste of time

  2. If we wanted to organize a second amnrndment March. Would this stupid school district support that?

  3. I always find it interesting when people who support individual rights complain when other people exercise them because they don’t agree with their view of them. You can’t pick and choose, you either have them or you don’t so make up your mind. This is not an attack on the 2nd amendment. There seems to be something inherently wrong when an 18yo can walk into a sporting goods store and buy an AR15, but has to be 25 with a major credit card to rent a car. Yes Ca has the strictest gun laws in the country, but people still manage to buy them and cause chaos. I spent 27 years in the Air Force, most of them as a medic and I’ve seen the damage that automatic weapons cause and no one should be walking around with one in this country.

  4. Why do you feel the need to deride these young people who have opted to exercise their right to protest? I am delighted to see so many nationwide participating in our democratic process to enact reasonable change regarding the unethical proliferation of assault rifles and their use against innocent victims. Seeing that Congress is unwilling and unable to do anything other than offer meaningless thoughts and prayers after each senseless massacre, perhaps this younger generation can ignite a movement much like the Civil Rights and the anti-war movements during the 60s-70s. Either way, some of these young people will be voting in the upcoming midterm elections and even more in the 2020 presidential election; so those spineless politicians who continue to accept blood money from the NRA should be very nervous. Change is coming!

  5. Bless them, and all our students. The gun laws in this country must change.

  6. Again your “news” site has censored my comment, why? Is it because I supported the students exercising their right to protest? Interestingly, you print 2 comments from John calling the protest and media coverage of it stupid, but fail to print an opposing view. My comment was not profanity filled, did not personally attack anyone by name, nor threaten anyone’s livelihood; unlike the daily barrage of insults by the current occupant of the White House. And yet, you censor!!

    I did take a screen shot of my previous post fearing your censorship occur AGAIN. I will wait to see what happens next.

  7. The “Gun Culture” is deservedly being recognized as a quaint and dangerous anachronism. The “well regulated militia” of Amendment 2 fame has evolved into a few million paranoid preppers owning several auto loading rifles each, buying more after every incident.We can’t regulate guns, apparently. But we can educate the hillbillies out of the American family.

  8. Yeah for the students and civic engagement! Thank you all for keeping this in the public eye. Bump stocks and machine guns did not exist at the time our founding fathers wrote the constitution or they might have added in something to address such weapons. No one is attacking the second amendment by asking that weapons of war receive more scrutiny.

  9. With this logic… we shouldn’t allow 17 year olds to join the military. Since it’s inherently wrong for them to handle weapons. The 18 yro person you refer to, was reported and the FBI, Law enforcement, and that school district failed those children. Oh and I saw these kids march… It was nothing but a party… This is inherently a stupid media issue covering this.

  10. I couldn’t agree more with Shawn. This country was built on the fundmental right to gather peacefully and voice ones support or opposition on any given topic. To call this stupid, as John & Janet do, is what is stupid. It’s people like them who want to cherry-pick the rights people are allowed to exercise. No one is saying a 17year old can’t handle a weapon, but military style weapons have NO place in the public hands. If you need one to hunt with, then you are a terrible shot. Can’t take a deer down with a one shot rifle, take up fishing. I’m grateful, and encouraged that these young people, many of whom will be registering to vote soon, are using their collective voices. Hopefully they will use them in the polls soon too.

  11. Protesting against law-abiding citizens is gutless. Protesting against criminals on their turf is courageous (south side of Chicago anyone?). Acting as puppets for the Leftist, Democratic party agenda supported by teachers is brainless.

    The people who are claiming there are no proposals that have been forwarded to address these atrocities are lying to themselves and others. As long as schools and any other place where people gather that’s known as a gun free zone, expect narcissistic, nihilistic, fatherless, churchless psychopaths to seek notoriety through mass murder. Those who reject allowing volunteers who can and are willing to handle a firearm in the effort to protect vulnerable young people have just abdicated whatever moral superiority they claim to own.

    They’re perfectly happy with a larger and larger pile of dead children as long as the 2nd Amendment can be repealed.

    As for your concern for gun violence, the lack of attention to the epidemic of murder of young black men in Chicago and the inner city around the nation, and your silence regarding these atrocities, invites one of your favorite epithets to be turned toward you. Racist!

  12. We have to either remember how to love each other or we must lose the fire-power. Hate and weapons never ends well.

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About Caleb Lunetta

Caleb has been a Santa Clarita resident for most of his life. After attending Hart High School, Caleb went on to study political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara along with College of the Canyons.