Newport's Met School Explores Meaning Of School Walkout

NEWPORT, RI — Students at the East Bay Met School will join the National Student Walkout on Wednesday, Brad Martin, school principal, confirmed, providing the weather situation cooperates. At 10 a.m., students all around the U.S. will literally walk out of school for 17 minutes, 17 in honor of the people killed in the Parkland, Florida school shootings on Valentine's Day. For some, the walkout also serves as a protest about gun control laws. But at the Met School, where the teachers and the whole school had a dialogue about the meaning of the walkout (and the reasons for joining or not joining it) there'll be nothing contentious about walking out. In fact, the school is planning three different ways students can express their thoughts about Parkland.

Most students will walk out with staff and teachers to the circle in front of the school as a tribute to the people who lost their lives, he said. Some will continue with the walkout around the North End to make a statement about gun control laws. Others will not. Still others will offer a moment of silence privately, he said.

The goal is to make the event something positive and find a way all the students can feel comfortable, he said. It all grew out of discussions in classrooms and over the school e-mail.

Athena Vieira, 17, of Tiverton, coordinated the walkout with the Women's March, which is supporting gun reform efforts nationwide. She put the Met School's event on the Women's March website, which listed all the schools planning March 14 walkouts. A junior at the Met School, Athena said she became interested during discussions in teacher Tricia Garland's class. She believes students can make a difference and that Congress up to now hasn't really considered how gun laws affect students and teachers.

"We didn't really have a voice," she said. But she believes they will because of the walkout. She is marching for a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines; more and better background checks; a federal gun registration order (similar to the 'red flag' laws designed to keep guns away from people considered a risk to themselves or others); federal research on gun violence and for new initiatives to promote safe storage of firearms.

If nothing changes, will the walkout be a success?

"I hope things will change," she said.

She doesn't expect a big turnout Wednesday because it's the day students are away from campus for internships.

"Probably 15 to 30" students will participate, she said. But the numbers aren't the whole story.

"It's had a very positive impact on our school all coming together," she said, and she thinks other schools here and around the U.S. should deal with the walkout the same way Met School did. Some schools have indicated students who walk out will face discipline. But the staff at Met School have been supportive.

"It's been a respectful discussion," she said. "Everyone wanted to remember" the 17 who died in Parkland, but some didn't want to participate in the political action. Both viewpoints are valid, she said.

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