Students across Jefferson County walked out of class and protested on Friday to advocate against gun violence and show solidarity with students at Evergreen High School, after a shooting this week at Evergreen High School left three injured and a shooter dead.
Hundreds of students from Wheat Ridge High School and Everitt Middle School walked out of class in the morning, marching to the busy intersection of 38th Avenue and Kipling Street. They lined the streets waving placards that read things like “26 years since Columbine. What’s Changed?” “Books Belong In Schools, Not Bullets,” and “Dead Kids Can’t Learn.”
The protest was one of similar walk-outs in the district this week. Arvada West students walked out on Thursday, and hundreds of Stanley Lake High, Lakewood and Jefferson High students also walked out on Friday.
“We need change,” said Will, 17, who did not give his last name. “School can't be a place where we go to fear. I just want to learn. I shouldn't be scared for politics while I'm trying to learn about how to make the world a better place. I'm done being f--- scared.”
Students expressed anger, fear, and bewilderment at why adults and lawmakers are not doing more to address the nation’s endemic gun violence and school shootings in particular. To cheers from honking cars and trucks, they shouted slogans like, “What do we want? Gun control! When do we want it? Now!" and "No more silence, end gun violence!"
One student had tears in his eyes as he and his friends shouted, “Am I Next?”
Some students had friends at Evergreen High School and wanted to show the community their support.
“We have a lot of mutual friends over there and we play them a lot in our sports,” said Saela, a senior. “I've been inside of that school. I've been around that school, so yeah, it's just ridiculous and something needs to change."
Student Helen, 17, plays golf with the girls from Evergreen. The students' message was a direct challenge to lawmakers and the wider community.
“Do what you can, vote,” she said. “Your opinion matters right now because a lot of us can't, but this is us that we're affecting, and we need you to speak through us and see that and see that we are struggling and need your help.”
Several students said they feel safe at their school, Wheat Ridge High — there is a security guard and the school checks IDs when people enter the school, but the Evergreen shooting put them on edge.
“Today I was scared for this because like, what if somebody (on the street) just starts shooting at us?” said one student.
Wheat Ridge sophomore Maura, a student organizer of the protest, said she wants people who are against gun control to understand that gun violence is having a real impact on students.
“We are scared to be in the classroom, we are scared to be at school. We're not learning to the best of our ability because we are focused about on (whether) we could make it to school again tomorrow. We could be next.”
Keaton, 17, called one of his friends at Evergreen High as soon as he heard about the shooting.
“He sounded terrified, and I was terrified for him,” he said. “I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to see him or talk to him ... I'm tired of hearing about this. I'm tired of it happening and then disappearing in the next week. People don't seem to care, and they really need to because these are our lives and this is the future of our country.”
Keaton and his friend Robert, also 17, said there needs to be more mental health counselors in school, but also more rigorous background checks that examine the internet search history of gun buyers to flag accounts that glorify white supremacy, antisemitism, racism, and Nazi material.
Students were frustrated about the frequency of school shootings and the cycle of inaction.
"We need to be talking about this because these things happened,” said Jackson, 17. “We lost someone at Evergreen," he said. "We started with Columbine. Now we're at Evergreen. Nothing's changed. Nothing has changed, and every time people … they brush it off. We come. We mourn our dead. And nothing’s changing."
Students from both schools crowded the four corners of the intersection, a poignant display of how gun violence has impacted local students and how they want it to stop. After an hour, many headed back to their classrooms. But Will, 17, stayed with a group of friends, waving placards at more passing cars.
"We can't have children on the streets protesting guns that kill us,” Will said. “And if that doesn't make you sick to your stomach, then, I don't know what will."
