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Elementary School Kids In Virginia Organize Walkout
"There’s been some parents that felt that we’re not old enough to know about it. Like, they think that just because were fifth graders we don’t know anything about what’s happening."
Ashley Fike
03.18.18

All across the country, students recently participated in a national 17-minute walkout. Their mission was to honor the 17 victims from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. However, two fifth-graders in Alexandria, Virginia, felt like they wanted to take the walkout one step – or one minute – further.

Naomi Wadler and Carter Anderson, both 11-years-old, wanted their elementary school to show 18 minutes of silence instead of 17. They wanted to honor Courtlin Arrington, a black teen girl killed last week at her high school in Birmingham, Alabama.

Lois Beckett, a senior reporter for The Guardian, was in attendance at George Mason Elementary school that day, and she sent tweets, along with pictures, documenting the powerful and moving walkout. More than 60 students participated in the protest, some as young as the first grade.

Both Naomi and Carter participated in a Q&A session with Lois Beckett about the walkout – their responses will bring tears to your eyes.

“I think, well specifically me, I don’t know what Carter thinks, that specifically African-American women, when they are shot and killed, or when they are killed in general, their names aren’t remembered,” Naomi said. So I thought it would be important to add an extra one minute.”

Carter, who also helped organize his school’s walkout, added that his entire school agreed that 18 minutes should be honored. Adding that “[Arrington] was studying to be a nurse. She could have saved people’s lives.

As the story was somewhat under-reported, Arrington died in a fatal shooting at Huffman High School in Birmingham, Alabama.

AL.com
Source:
AL.com

“We have lost one of our brightest and best scholars, Courtlin Arrington, to senseless gun violence,”Birmingham City Schools Superintendent Lisa Herring told AL.com. “She was energetic, friendly and well-liked by peers and teachers alike. We have more than 23,000 students at Birmingham City Schools, and when one of them is harmed, all are impacted.”

The young students at George Mason Elementary left their classrooms and remained silent as they held posters outside the school. At one point, they were lying on the grass as their parents watched nearby.

As it turns out, when Naomi and Carter first pitched the idea to their principal, he wasn’t on board.

“I think me and Carter can understand because nobody expects a bunch of ten and eleven year olds to stand up and start walking out of the school building,” Naomi said.

The Guardian
Source:
The Guardian

“Also, in the class, there’s been some parents that felt that we’re not old enough to know about it. Like, they think that just because were fifth graders we don’t know anything about what’s happening,” Carter added.

However, after a few days of contemplation, the principal became fully supportive of their organized walkout. Wonderfully, everything went off without a hitch. There was even a special visitor in addition to the media.

The mayor of Alexandria was even in attendance and a woman who noticed Naomi’s shivering hands offered her gloves – and let her keep them.

Naomi has one message she would like to share with all of the adults in this country:

“I hope adults, in general, will realize, if they haven’t already, that this is a really big issue, and that innocent people have lost their lives, and that we should keep working harder and harder to make gun reform, to make school safety, a huge priority.”

More footage of their touching and emotional walkout is below.

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