Walkouts at some 2,700 schools took place on Friday across the nation — for the second time in little over a month. Students once again chucked their books and their studies for some protest time, organized under the hashtag #nationalschoolwalkout.
The idea for this walkout came from high school sophomore Lane Murdock of tony Ridgefield, Connecticut, The New York Times reported.
In the Change.org petition Murdock started, the student cited the February 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, as a catalyst.
Never one to miss being part of the news cycle, actors Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore pitched in on the effort by writing “excuse letters” for those students who planned to walk out of class, according to Breitbart.
De Niro’s letter said: “Please excuse _________ from classes on April 20th to participate in the National School Walkout. I know we share the same interest for our children — a safe nurturing environment for their education and growth.”
Average moms and dads in America who want their children to be educated during school hours feel differently. “When do we start telling these 16-year-olds that if they wish to protest, attempt to change gun laws (which is actual language to get rid of all guns) or anything else having to do with a non-related school subject, that they get to do all they want of these things after school hours and on weekends?” wrote Facebook user William Robert Howell.
“We not only have a problem in this country with students being rude, back-talking [to] teachers,” he continued, “using foul language while on campus, planning protest[s], walkouts, and doing actual walkouts during school-required attendance, but we also have a problem with our school leaders, teachers, etc., on not enforcing the rule of law by suspending students that just walk out of class or off campus when they are required to be in the classroom …”
Related: This Father Did Not Participate in Saturday’s Anti-Gun March
Were these walkouts actually done in memory of those lost to gun violence — or was this something else altogether?
The Friday walkouts were held on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado.
“Organizers hope[d] Friday’s walkout show[ed] politicians that the students behind the anti-gun violence movement won’t allow their story to fade from the news cycle,” reported The Baltimore Sun.
Despite attempts by liberals and anti-NRA protesters to make martyrs out of the “walkers,” some schools are saying “enough.” Several Baltimore-area school districts informed students that they could face consequences if they participated in the Friday protests, The Sun reported.
Related: After the School Walkouts, America Has a Newly Minted Batch of Victims
Public schools in Carroll County, Maryland, would not permit students to leave their classrooms on Friday. Superintendent Stephen Guthrie took a hard line and said he was uncomfortable with how the student-led protests held since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings have become increasingly political.
A much different attitude was expected across the Pacific Northwest.
Remember when people like MLK used to march for equal rights?
Now anti-2nd Amendment students are walking out of class to march AGAINST their own Constitutional rights.
It is sad that they are so brainwashed.#NationalSchoolWalkout
— Makada ?? (@_Makada_) April 20, 2018
In Seattle, where protests are deemed downright virtuous, students at more than 30 schools throughout the region, from Marysville to Mukilteo to Burien, were expected to attend the “We Won’t Be Next” walkout and rally.
https://twitter.com/unscriptedmike/status/987328598884409345
In classic politically correct form, the rally was set to feature a panel of city and elected officials to talk and answer questions about gun violence. Panelists included Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best and state Sen. Rebecca Saldana (D-Seattle), a real kumbaya moment, according to The Seattle Times.
Meanwhile, citywide protests had been expected to attract thousands of people in New York City and in Austin, Texas, reported multiple outlets. Police in Richmond, Virginia, expected at least 10,000 in the state capital.
Images of kids holding signs with graphic messages — too graphic to include here — were featured prominently across mainstream media outlets on Friday (coverage the pro-life protests held earlier this month certainly never got). It seems that when these protests and walkouts are led by anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment protesters, well, a sense of balance and perspective appear to be off the table.
Elizabeth Economou is a former CNBC staff writer and adjunct professor. Follow her on Twitter.
(photo credit, homepage and article images: March For Our Lives [1], [2], CC BY 2.0, by Fibonacci Blue)
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