Student Walkout Cry: ​“Enough Is Enough!”

Thousands of New Haven high school students walked out of class Monday — with permission — to add their voices to a national day of student protest against gun violence.

• 1,500 Cross students hear pleas about mass shootings as well as homicides that buried their classmates. Christopher Peak reports.

• Coop High students fill downtown sidewalks in protest.

Marching, chanting, cheering and singing, the Co-op students said that if adults will not take the lead in preventing an endless cycle of mass school slayings, then students need to step up.

At 9:05 a.m. on Wednesday, 36 students in a Peer Leadership class at Co-op led hundreds of their fellow students, teachers and administrators out of their third period classes and onto Crown Street and College Street.

The student organizers at Co-op spent the past week planning the walkout as part of their Peer Leadership course, which is only open to seniors and focuses on student-led projects as opposed to typical teacher-driven instruction.

Daniel Wajnowski and Ryan Boroski, the two teacher-facilitators for the course, called together the students at 8:15 a.m. in the fourth floor seminar room to do some final planning for the walkout.

“Today you guys are the change you wish to see in the world,” Boroski told the students, pointing to the class’s quotation of the day, by Mahatma Gandhi. 

“Sandy Hook is still fresh on these students’ minds,” Wasjnowski said, referring to the 2012 school massacre in Newtown. He said that students came to him and Boroski soon after the Parkland killings and said that they wanted to do something to help break the cycle of gun violence in schools.

They watched CNN town hall discussions with student survivors from Parkland. When they heard about the national school walkout day, the students told Wajnowski and Boroski that they wanted to participate too.

Students finished painting protest signs and practicing chant lyrics as they strategized for just how the walkout would happen later in the morning.

Each student was assigned a different class to help usher out onto the streets surrounding Co-op and form a human wall around the building at 9:05 a.m. At 9:40 a.m., eight students in pairs of two would read protest speeches at each corner of the building. At 9:50, they would all sing John Lennon’s ​“Imagine.” At 10, they would read the names of the 17 people killed at Parkland, followed by 17 seconds of silence after each name.

“I’m a firm believer in pacifism and ending gun violence, not just in schools,” said Zasha Rodriguez, a 17-year-old senior at Co-op, as she finished painting a protest sign. ​“If it’s not adults making the change, it should be the students. Teens have always been at the forefront of political activism.”

Her classmate Molly McGovern agreed, gesturing towards signs that showed Connecticut and Florida connected by a dotted line.

“This is about raising awareness and showing support for the victims,” she said. ​“This is not just about Parkland, but about all school shooting victims. There have been too many.”

Nashawn Jinks, a 17-year-old student in the Peer Leadership course who also recorded the protest for his TV production class, said that students could no longer stand by and do nothing while these shootings continued.

“I feel like, in our society, it shouldn’t be the norm for schools to get shot up,” he said. ​“I don’t think outlawing guns is the answer, but we need to do something to stop these mass slayings.”

He said that the mass shooting in Las Vegas was a turning point for him and many of his students, and that he was horrified to see that type of gun violence come into high schools.

“If teachers are armed,” he said, in reference to a solution proposed by President Trump and many of his supporters in the National Rifle Association (NRA), ​“then my kids are going to be homeschooled.”

“It’s kind of a cycle,” agreed classmate Dimani Ben-Salahuddin. ​“We hear about it on the news for a week, and then it’s gone.”

He said that he wants this protest to provoke a national recognition, among students, teachers, politicians, and everyone else, that this country has a problem with gun violence. ​“Children and young people are going to take over the world,” he said.

At 9 a.m., an administrator announced over the intercom that students should make sure to bring their coats to their third period classes, so that they could go straight outside for the Peace Demonstration soon thereafter.

At 9:05, the student organizers began to lead their classmates out of classes, down the stairwell, and out the school’s rear entrance onto Crown Street and George Street.

Many students wore orange shirts and coats in solidarity with the Parkland victims, and almost all of the student organizers had delicate orange ribbons pinned to their shirts and sweaters.

Outside, the students wrapped around the perimeter of the building, forming a human wall. Co-op Principal ValJean Belton said that the school has 643 students total, but that around 50 decided to opt out of the protests when the principal reached out to their parents and families in anticipation of the walkout.

“We wanted to give the students a chance to have their voices heard,” Belton said. ​“And we stressed that the protest had to be a peaceful one.”

As the students wrapped around the building, spontaneous chants of ​“Enough is enough!” and ​“Protect kids, not guns!” burst forth throughout the crowd. Wajnowski and Boroski, wearing shirts that read ​“Proud” and ​“Proud Civics Teacher” respectively, rushed up and down College Street, helping the student organizers round up their peers and get in position for their speeches.

At 9:40 a.m., student organizer Maya Krzeminski picked up a bullhorn at the corner of College and George and began to read a mission statement that she had written for the protest.

“Lately I’ve felt that American politicians have put the value of their guns over the value of my life, of my classmates’ lives, and of students’ lives nationwide,” she said. ​“I believe that instead of falling for the NRA’s ploy to only look at school security to resolve mass shootings in schools, we acknowledge, consider, and reflect on the placement and distribution of guns in America.”

She said that American politicians needed to look at countries like Germany, Britain, Australia and Japan, where strict gun control laws protect them from the epidemic of mass shootings that faces America.

“Here a mass shooting happens and we talk about it and its shown on the news for a week and we all forget about it,” she continued. ​“Then another mass shooting happens, and the cycle continues. I’m sick of it. I hate that it took innocent high schoolers who lost their friends and teachers to stand up and say something because the people in office would rather feed off the NRA’s money than make sure that children of America are safe.”

Around the building, students cheered and waved signs in support. ​“We need books NOT bullets,” one read. ​“Adults are afraid to listen to the young,” read another.

At 10 a.m., the organizers decided to change up the schedule. Instead of waiting outside in the cold, they ushered their peers back into the building and to their classes.

The organizers then gathered in the school’s main administrative office, and recorded themselves singing along to John Lennon’s peace anthem ​“Imagine,” swaying back and forth amidst protest signs and orange ribbons.

At 10:15 a.m., the students read the names of the 17 Parkland victims over the school’s intercom. After each name was read, the students paused for 17 seconds of silence. Solemn and focused, the students held the weight of the silences alongside the weight of each name. Surrounding each other in support, this was a macabre roll call that, for them, also represented a moment of solidarity and even hope.

“We did it,” one student said to another after the last of the names was read, wiping tears from her eyes as she gave her classmate a hug.

“What I’m most proud of is the care that these students brought to this walkout,” Wajnowski said.

After one last group picture and a few more hugs, the students returned to class, hand in hand, ready for their fourth period.

Click on the videos below to watch Facebook Live excerpts from the protest.