On March 14th, students all around the country collectively walked out of class in protest of safer schools and gun reform. Stamford High School was informed that we would take part in this walkout, but in reality we were met with limitations. We didn’t have a walkout, we had an assembly.

This nation wide walkout comes one month after the deadly MSD school shooting where 17 lives were lost. The students at that school rallied together in their anger and sorrow, and started forth a movement that has sparked a trailblazing fire in this generation. Students at our school organized this walkout, and while our administrators were more than obliged to support this action, in all honesty, they overstepped their boundaries when they didn’t allow us to go outside.

This movement was created by students to advocate for our safety and show that it’s time for us to be taken seriously. While we deeply appreciate the administration’s support and Mayor Martin’s call to action, the student body does not need to be coddled during protests. But can we even call it that when Manka himself called it a presentation? And frankly, it felt like it. When we were sitting down in the gym, we were just being talked at, with very little inclusion of the student body whatsoever. All we did was walk to the gym, those who brought signs holding them up with hardly any enthusiasm. If we had a walkout as planned, everyone would feel like their presence mattered and that they were really adding their voices to push for change. Instead, teachers and security guards lined the doors and only allowed us to sit and listen for 30 minutes.

Granted, there were fears that students would just leave campus as soon as they got outside, but hate to burst your bubble; if kids wanted to leave, they did anyway. And, while it is true that some kids might have attended the walkout simply to get out of class, the majority of our school’s population truly wanted to participate in this walkout.

My point is that our voices while heard, they were muffled by the interests of others. We should not have let the administrators control the situation. We have the power and that protest, not presentation, was supposed to exemplify that. It is great that our administration “allowed” this to happen, but it shouldn’t have mattered if they did or not. We were cheated out of our chance to stand in solidarity with fellow students around the country. Our civil disobedience was impaired.

Westhill and AITE were outside, their conditions were no different than ours, and yet we were subject to restraint. Every point made by student, principal, or mayor was completely valid and important, don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to take away from the message of school safety that our students so brilliantly executed. I just find it undermining that the moment was shared. We are truly grateful of support but this is the time for students to stand up. It shouldn’t have mattered what anyone said, we should have marched right out onto that field and planted our feet. It wouldn’t have been hard to plug in an amp or bring a megaphone for those to speak. Hopefully, this movement will be more than a political photo op, because our lives are at stake.