Elementary School Kids In Virginia Organize Walkout

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.

Covering a walkout this morning at an elementary school in Virginia, and the 11-year-old organizers had a press packet ready for me. pic.twitter.com/eeElhGciid

— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) March 14, 2018

The walkout at Naomi and Carter’s school will last 18 minutes, with an extra minute added for Courtlin Arrington, who was shot at a school in Alabama. When African-American women are killed “their names aren’t remember, so I thought it was important to add,” Naomi said. pic.twitter.com/xbrejOkYIx

— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) March 14, 2018

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.

“Everyone thought it would be a good idea,” to add a minute to their elementary school walkout to honor Courtlin Arrington, said Carter, 11. “She was studying to be a nurse. She could have saved peoples lives.” pic.twitter.com/mVab1e1qdG

— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) March 14, 2018

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

“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.

It is freezing cold and these 60+ elementary school protesters are lying completely still, and no one is making a sound, just the posters flapping a little over their bodies. Alexandria, Virginia. pic.twitter.com/6OI0GHbdQN

— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) March 14, 2018

Students have stood up again. Complete silence. Their faces are so serious. One of them was shaking with the cold and still holding up her sign. pic.twitter.com/AXWvEcIet3

— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) March 14, 2018

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.

“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.

After the walkout ended, 11-year-old Naomi, who organized the protest, shook hands with Alexandria’s mayor, who had been there. Naomi was shaking with the cold. A woman gave her her gloves and told her to keep them. pic.twitter.com/hnmZLKeeYt

— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) March 14, 2018

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.”