This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
03/26/2018 09:10 AMThe national Student Walkout and March for Our Lives are over, but Branford High School (BHS) student leaders calling for change for safer schools will continue to be heard on Mon. April 2, when U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal meets with students at the school.
On March 23, BHS principal Lee Panagoulias told Zip06/The Sound and student leaders who organized the school's March 14 Walkout that he was contacted by the senator's office with a request to come to the school for a "town hall" style gathering. Details were still being finalized, but the school-day visit from Connecticut's senior U.S. Senator is expected to include opening remarks and time for questions and comments from students.
“I think they very much hear the idea of developing student voice, and so his purpose in doing this is to really help make people aware of how their voices can be heard,” said Panagoulias of Blumenthal’s request for the visit.
BHS Walkout student co-organizer Mary Olejarcyzk, a senior, has already crystallized and delivered many of her thoughts on school safety to another congressional leader; Connecticut’s U.S. Senator Chris Murphy. She wrote Murphy soon after the Feb. 14 shooting deaths at Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) High School in Parkland FL.
“I sent a letter to Chris Murphy two days after the shooting in Parkland,” said Olejarcyzk. “It was about how this is our life — we were 12 when Sandy Hook happened — and it hasn’t stopped. I think what happened in Florida really resonated with us. Because it was a high school, it was the most relatable incident; and because, at this point, some of us are 17 and 18 and we’re ready, we’re waiting for change; and we’re not just going to sit back anymore. These people that it’s happening to; they’re growing up and they have a voice they’re willing to use. I was asking him to understand what it’s like to be a student who hasn’t had a school shooting affect them [directly], but what it’s like to live during this time, and hoping that something happens to change that.”
THE BHS STUDENT WALKOUT
On March 14, Olejarcyzk, together with friends Abby Boyle, Jayleen Flores and Andrew DeBenedictis, in cooperation with school administrators and the district, led the BHS Student Walkout as part of school walkouts taking place nationwide. The act is part of a movement for change sparked by students who survived the Feb. 14 MSD high school shooting.
As previously reported, snow around the BHS building caused the district to hold the event inside the BHS gym, where it took place for 17 minutes as a student opt-in attendance function. Boyle, who initiated the idea of having a walkout at BHS, said the response from students who chose to attend was “awesome.”
“I thought there was a small group of us who were very passionate about it, and motivated politically, but I never expected to have more than half the school in attendance, and have everyone so excited and passionate about what we were doing and talked about,” said Boyle, a junior.
“I thought it was really empowering,” added Flores, a senior. “The gym just started filling with people. We were all standing there in shock. They had posters and were chanting. When we were speaking, people were silent and really respectful. It felt really supportive. It definitely felt like we were actually making a change, and being a part of something much bigger than a walkout at Branford High School; we were part of a national walkout across the United States. So it felt really powerful.”
“We were all there to show our generation wants to do something, and we wanted to show congress that we want change in some way,” added Boyle. “Because it does need to change.”
Flores, Olejarcyzk, Boyle and DeBenedictis each spoke at the 17-minute gathering.
“We all had different messages we wanted to get across,” said Flores. “Mine was about honoring the lives lost – I read off their names — and to recognize what happened a month ago in Parkland, Florida.”
Boyle said her talk to fellow students was, “...about how we need to do something. We are the future. We have to register to vote; we need to support our generation, to take action and do something, instead of waiting around for the answer.”
DeBenedictis, who was away on March 23 with BHS Model Congress and not available to be interviewed for this story, spoke on March 14 about student involvement and the need to take action, said his peers. DeBenedictis is a BHS junior.
“He also touched on gun control. His was probably the most political out of all of us. He has a really good voice in this and strong opinions, and everyone was really respectful and listened,” said Boyle. “Like Andrew said, it doesn’t matter what side you’re on; if someone comes in this building, we’re all in the same position and having the same feeling — why can’t we just use that emotion and fix it?”
Olejarcyzk said her talk shared much of what she’d expressed in her letter Murphy.
“Part of my speech said how you go into a movie theater, and someone walks in and you become so fascinated on watching them; because we grew up with that [fear]. Or you hear a door slam in the [school] hallway, and your heart kind of jumps. These are the things we think about that other generations have never had to think about,” said Olejarcyzk, adding, “ Something I saw on Twitter broke my heart the other day. It was girl from Florida saying she still hasn’t worn jeans to school, because they’re harder to run in. It’s just stuff like that our generation grows up with thinking about all the time, that others haven’t.”
THE VIEW THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
All of the BHS student leaders, like so many high school students around the country, first found out about the Feb. 14 shooting at MSD high school on social media.
“I had a test the next day in one of my AP science classes; and I take break from my studying, turn on my phone and it’s blowing up with every news source,” Boyle recalled. “I got completely consumed. I broke down when I saw video of it. I couldn’t keep my focus on anything besides what was going on. The next day, we all here [at school], but we weren’t here. It was a hard few days; even talking about it now is still hard.”
Parents may be worried about unprecedented access to unfiltered video and raw information, but the student leaders said they ultimately feel the exposure strengthens resolve.
“You can’t really escape it,” said Flores, who said she saw a disturbing MSD school shooting-related video because someone showed it to before telling her what it was about. “When you see so much, all in a very graphic video, it completely broke me. I broke down in tears, it broke my heart so much.”
“Even though those videos were so graphic, it shows that it’s so real,” said Boyle. “You’re seeing it’s not fake, this could happen anywhere. It’s really tough to see, but you can’t hide it, you can’t shove under the rug and pretend it didn’t happen; because it did.”
“I think it motivated me even more,” added Flores. “Obviously I was upset about what was going on, but after getting immersed into all the social media, it definitely sparked something in me to want to do something and make a change; not just sit around.”
“You’re understanding the fear that they felt, but at a different level,” said Boyle. “You see a video, maybe it breaks your heart and you cry afterwards for a long time; but you understand what they went through. And because we’re all in high school, we all empathize with them so much. It’s like I never want anybody I love or care about, or anybody else, to ever have to experience this again. It kept us motivated.”
“It’s like it happens to you,” added Flores. “I felt really connected to the kids in Florida, reading all about [them]. These kids, they’re our age, they do the same stuff, like the same music, wear the same clothes. They’re really us. It’s heart wrenching.”
IS THEIR SCHOOL SAFE?
As young people with lives shaped during the years following 9/11 and, as seventh-graders, by Connecticut’s tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, worries about whether they’re safe at school is never out of mind, said the BHS student leaders.
“We think about safety all the time,” said Boyle. “Especially right after (the MSD high school shootings) happened. We would hear a noise and get really tense. It was something we had to talk about in classes. It can get really scary — you’re in class thinking, ‘If something happened, where would I go?’”
As previously reported, parents and students have been bringing concerns about strengthening school safety to the Board of Education (BOE) as part of listening sessions being organized by the district. Superintendent of Schools Hamlet Hernandez has shared information that can be given out publicly on current safety and security measures and other layers being added.
One issue raised during the BOE discussions was a trespassing incident at BHS which took place on Feb. 15, one day after the shooting at MSD high school. While a joint press release from the district and Branford police stated the juvenile trespasser did not pose a threat and was safely removed from the premises, parents and students were unnerved when they learned about the incident; with many students choosing not to attend school the next day.
“We had a day little less than 200 that didn’t come to school the next day,” said Flores. “That’s worrying and scary and so sad — people didn’t come to school because they feel unsafe. But at any school in this country, kids would say the same thing. I think that’s why we want to do this. We don’t know exactly know what the answer should be; but there needs to be some sort of change. That’s why we’re telling congress to do something. We’re using our voices.”
Boyle added students are starting to see extra layers of security and school safety take effect at BHS.
“School is now more strict; so we’re definitely making progress,” she said. “I definitely feel safer now —there’s more that can be done, but I definitely see the effort the school is putting in to make us more safe, and I appreciate that.”
ON CONTINUING TO BE HEARD
Olejarcyzk said many students want to find ways to continue the national momentum so that their voices will be heard until change takes place, including attending March for Our Lives satellite walks, like one held in Guilford, on March 24.
“We’re leaving this school next year; but this issue isn’t going away. I think our generation is not going to be stopped. This sparked something. We’re going to keep going. It’s going to become very prominent in our generation.”
“The kids in Florida, their voices aren’t dying down; so if they’re like that, then we want our voices to be louder in Connecticut. It kind of keeps everyone going,” added Flores.
Olejarcyzk added she feels her generation will call for action by voting for leaders who will bring change.
“If this movement has done one thing, it’s encouraged our generation to vote,” said Olejarcyzk. “If they show up and use their voice, then the issues that are important to us, that might not be important to other people, are going to be addressed.
Learning a member of U.S. Congress will visit BHS to hear from students on April 2 is “really encouraging,” said Boyle.
“It’s really awesome that this isn’t stopping; because when I first heard about [the March 14 School Walkouts], I thought, ‘I don’t want this issue not to be heard about the next week – I don’t want it to go through the media, and then the next stories come,’” she said. “So this is really encouraging, to see that it isn’t going away, and that we’re actually going to do something about it.”