Events to mark Columbine anniversary draw criticism in Delaware

A smattering of Delaware students appear to be planning student walkouts Friday honoring the 19th year since the Columbine High School massacre, an attack that marked a new era of gun violence in the United States. 

There are only a handful of local events listed on the National School Walkout site at the following locations: Thomas McKean High School, Odyssey Charter High School, Shue-Medill Middle School, Redding Middle School, Appoquinimink High School, MOT Charter School, William Penn High School and the University of Delaware.

Just because they are listed does not mean they are condoned by school administrators or that there are no other events.

At least one school, Seaford High School, has reportedly addressed the possibility of a walkout with parents, informing them via email that students would be marked unexcused, which could impact their ability to go to prom this Saturday. 

School administrators did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

At Middletown High School, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons will talk about gun violence and take questions from about 400 juniors and seniors from both of the district's high schools. 

Not all community members are in favor of the idea, and on Facebook some said they did not want their children to attend, especially since the talk features a Democratic politician and not a counterbalancing proponent of the Second Amendment. 

“It’s almost like they’re shoving this down kids throats," said Belinda Eckler, a Townsend resident. Her 24-year-old son graduated from Middletown High School and is now serving in the Air Force. "Politics don't have any place in school.”

District officials say there are misperceptions about the event, which is intended to be a learning opportunity. The discussion will not be guided by school staff or politics, spokeswoman Lilian Miles said. Coons was chosen as the speaker because he has a reputation as a champion for bipartisan legislation and is a gun owner and recreational hunter. 

Students are free to opt out of the event and will have study hall if they do not attend. The talk will last 45 minutes. 

"Since space restrictions make it impossible to involve every single student from both high schools (Middletown and Appoquinimink), a representative group of predominantly upperclassmen and/or classes that offer enough flexibility to make attendance possible will be present," Miles said, addressing concerns that some students were kept from attending. 

Some students chose not to participate in school walkouts held on March 14 and will not walk out on Friday, either. Carter Clark, a student at Sussex Technical High School and chairman of the Sussex County Teenage Republicans, has been frustrated with media coverage of the walkouts and said the protests create chaos. 

He was especially frustrated by a viral picture of two Sussex Tech students holding the U.S. flag upside down last month. He doesn't think it's appropriate to hold politically decisive demonstrations or protests at a high school and believes they are largely ineffective. 

"Anybody that knows teenagers knows they are notorious for turning meaningful, deep, legitimate issues, into a joke," he said. "And that’s what this walkout was to many kids, a
joke. The day of the walkout, I look down on at my phone and it’s lighting up, social  media is going crazy. Pictures flood my screen of students, at my high school, holding upside down flags. I am not OK with that. Using a flag that is supposed to represent who we are, who we want to be, and what we fought for, be used as a political statement for gun control is disgusting to me."

There are more than 2,300 anti-gun violence events planned nationally on Friday. This is the latest mass protest organized by a student-led gun-control movement forged after a Valentine's Day shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead.

A Connecticut high school student started planning the walkouts the day of the Florida shooting. Lane Murdock, a sophomore at Ridgefield High School, said she hopes this walkout will rejuvenate the #NeverAgain movement and continue the dialogue about gun-control measures, including a ban on assault-style weapons. 

"Keeping up the momentum is important," Murdock said. "We saw that low after March for Our Lives, but students aren't quitting on this. Our generation is demanding change and won't be ignored or swept under the rug." 

Murdock, whose school is about 15 miles from Newtown, Connecticut, where 27 were killed in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, said she decided to take a stand and plan the walkouts because of her reaction to the shooting in Parkland at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

"I really felt quite numb to it. Our whole country is pretty desensitized to gun violence and once I realized I was, too, it really scared me," she said. "I was no longer surprised that people were dying. That shouldn't be the case." 

More than a million people gathered for the March for Our Lives rallies in Washington on March 24, including students from Delaware. At a sister rally in Wilmington, former Vice President Joe Biden addressed the crowd. 

Earlier in the month, on March 14, students staged the first nationwide walkout. Nearly every high school in Delaware got involved, standing outside for 17 minutes, one for every victim in the Parkland shooting. 

The walkouts on Friday are scheduled to start at 10 a.m., and students will take 13 seconds to honor the 13 killed at Columbine High School in 1999. 

USA Today reporter Christal Hayes contributed to this story. Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.

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