Spring Valley High Students Walkout For School Safety

LAS VEGAS, NV - Hundreds of students walked out of Spring Valley High School Wednesday morning shortly before 10 a.m., some holding signs, others marching silently behind a message demanding enhanced school safety. The Las Vegas high school took part in a nationwide school walkout one month after a shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.

The message at Spring Valley High School on Wednesday, however, wasn't about guns. Instead, students and faculty talked about a broader approach to school safety that includes more resources inside hallways and a different approach to treating students with behavioral struggles.

"What I'm really proud of is, the kids I've talked to at school have really kept it apolitical," said SVHS Principal Tam Larnerd. "It hasn't been a Second Amendment debate. It hasn't been a conversation about gun control. It's been, 'we deserve safe schools.' It's a basic need to have safe schools and teachers deserve a safe place to work."

Larnerd didn't know the exact number of SVHS's 2,350 students who chose to take part in the walkout, which lasted about 20 minutes. Teachers were told to remain in their classrooms for students who chose not to participate. Those who did walked a "Lap for Life" around the school's campus.

"Think about the changes that have happened in this country as a result of people standing up, advocating, protesting," Larnerd said, referencing women's suffrage and the civil rights movement. "Now we have these kid standing up for safe schools, for themselves, and for the teachers."

Students who organized the event intentionally avoided making the walkout about guns. Instead, the students' message was about making schools safer by adding police officers, improving evacuation plans, and updating school security and surveillance.

"I just wanted to march for student safety, I didn't want anything about gun control or gun laws to be incorporated in it," said sophomore Charlotte Jones, a member of the SVHS Student Council. She spearheaded organizing the walkout.

"I'm just really happy that a lot of people showed up because I was worried that there wasn't going to be a lot because a lot of people are iffy on the subject," she said. "The fact that so many people came out and made their own posters made me so happy."

Jones said that the idea for the march came a few weeks ago, when a power outage caused a scare for some students. She said the voice of the students at school has grown louder in the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.

"We only have two police officers on our campus, and two police officers will not be enough to protect our 2,500 student population. So having more police officers, for me, is one of the best ways we can feel more safe at our school," Jones said.

She also mentioned "changing some of the evacuation plans at the school for fire drills, or when there's soft lock downs or hard lock downs," as something the school can do to improve safety.

Politics weren't the focus of the march, but some students still took the opportunity to deliver their own message. One sign held by a student read "When will we stop being target practice?" As the march was ending and students were funneling back inside, another student yelled "But I still support Donald Trump!"

On Monday, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval met with superintendents and announced the creation of a school safety taskforce that includes educators, parents, and behavioral experts. Larnerd said it's important that the students are part of that discussion.

"These are the kids who are, hopefully, going to be writing letters to Governor Sandoval, to their school board members, to their legislators," he said. "We need more campus monitors and we need a better restorative process to help our persistently violent students with wraparound services, with mental health. Enough is enough, we need more help. We need better wraparound services for our kids that are really struggling and making these horrific choices."

Images via Lucas Thomas/Las Vegas Patch