Cobb schools walkout

Top East Cobb stories for 2018: School walkouts lead to punitive action

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East Cobb school walkouts
Parents and family members of Walton students walking out came to lend support outside the locked school gates. (ECN)

Here’s something that took a lot of people by surprise in East Cobb in 2018: Student walkouts in favor of gun-control, a month after the high school shootings in Parkland, Fla.

Students from Walton, Pope, Lassiter and Wheeler were vocal about their plans to leave their classes at a designated time on March 14 as part of a national campaign to protest gun violence.

The Cobb County School District announced that it did not endorse the walkout, and said students who violated school disruption policies would be subject to disciplinary action.

The day after the Florida shootings, principal Chris Ragsdale announced the district would step up code-red drills to improve preparedness.

At Walton, walkout leaders said they were undeterred, claiming they had 2,300 students signed up to take part in the protest.

In an interview with East Cobb News, Walton principal Judy McNeill said she was disappointed with the students who were walking out, and that other students were organizing an alternative to honor the Florida victims before the start of the school day.

Cobb schools closed high school campuses to visitors on March 14, and even locked the gates at Walton, where parents, friends and family members brought signs to signal their support for the walkout students.

At Pope High School, police blocked the only entrance. Cobb schools claimed only 250 Walton students walked out.

As the walkout period approached, a Walton parent read the names of the 17 victims in Parkland.

The following day, some of the East Cobb walkout leaders blistered Cobb school board members during a public comment period for attempting “to silence us” about their concerns over student safety.

Most of the board members said nothing. The students who walked out generally received a day of in-school suspension.

Other top East Cobb schools stories for 2018 include the opening of new school facilities at East Cobb Middle School and Brumby Elementary School, a Dodgen math teacher being named the Cobb teacher of the year, Sprayberry High School marking its 65th anniversary and school officials conducting a school safety town hall meeting at Lassiter High School.

Principal Amanda Richie (in black dress) said the Brumby ES family will make the new campus “not just a school house but a school home.”

 

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Defiant East Cobb walkout leaders blister Cobb schools for attempts to ‘silence us’

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East Cobb walkout leaders, Cobb students
Walton parents held up signs in support of their children who walked out Wednesday (East Cobb News file photo).

The day after they ignored threatened punishments by Cobb schools and walked out of classes, students at Walton, Pope and Lassiter high schools denounced the district’s position on opposing the nationwide event and asked for leniency.

In a public comment session at the Cobb Board of Education meeting Thursday, several students decried what they described as efforts to “silence us,” and vowed that their demands for greater school safety, including “commonsense” gun control laws, would continue.

“This will not deter us,” said Kara Litwin, who led the walkout at Pope High School.

She was among the 1,000 students estimated by the Cobb County School District who left their classes for 17 minutes Wednesday as part of the National School Walkout.

The walkout took place exactly a month after 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., were shot to death on campus. A former student was charged with their killings.

Related coverage

The Cobb district said it did not support the walkouts because it was concerned about school safety and not disrupting the school day, and said that students who walked out would face consequences for their actions.

The punishments were not specified, and the district said disciplinary action is up to individual schools. Those actions have not been announced, but judging by students’ comments, some could be facing a three-day out-of-school suspension.

“I walked out for 17 minutes,” Litwin said. “Seventeen minutes, compared to the lives of 17 people.”

She said Cobb schools “taught us to stand up for what we believe in. Why are you going back on your word?”

Natalie Carlomagno, a Walton High School sophomore who organized her school’s walkout, echoed similar thoughts.

“Why do you want to punish us for using the excellent education you’ve given us? We just want to be safe.”

She said three days of an out-of-school suspension “is much more disruptive than 17 minutes.”

Only 260 Walton students walked out, a much smaller number than the more than 2,000 organizers said had signed up. Walton freshman Divya Vismani, another walkout leader, said that was “because of the threats” students received from school officials not to join the protest.

Lassiter High School senior Hannah Andress, who led her school’s walkout, was the most critical, saying she felt like she had to march because “I am tired of fearing for my life.”

She also referenced a possible three-day suspension, and asked the board members “shouldn’t you be supporting me? Listen to me. I am begging you.

“I am advocating for myself, because you didn’t.”

East Cobb resident Pamela Riordan, who lives near Walton, commended Cobb schools for opposing the walkout, and said that “students are being used by factions in society,” especially on gun issues.

“The problem is not guns,” she said, but that the suspect in the Florida shootings had not been previously detained, despite numerous calls to law enforcement about his behavior.

“That is the breakdown, that is what we should be talking about,” she said.

At the end of the meeting, most board members did not respond to the walkout students’ comments, and they have said little publicly about the issue in general.

Susan Thayer of Smyrna thanked the students for their remarks and said she respected their opinions but said only that “it’s been a frustrating week.”

Scott Sweeney, who represents the Walton district, wished everyone a happy spring break. David Banks, who represents Pope and Lassiter, said he enjoyed a recent visit reading to students at Eastvalley Elementary School. David Chastain commended Kell High School culinary students for the Mexican meal prepared for the board before the meeting.

Randy Scamihorn of north and west Cobb mentioned four police officers nationwide who have recently been killed in the line of duty, something he does regularly. He urged everyone associated with Cobb schools to support the work of the district’s public safety officials to keep students, teachers and staff safe.

Cobb schools superintendent Chris Ragsdale also did not comment on the students’ remarks.

 

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Cobb schools campuses closed to ‘visitors’ Wednesday on walkout day; Walton says threat against school not credible

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Walkout Day Coverage

 

UPDATED, 5:30 P.M.

Walton High School Principal Judy McNeill sent out this message to parents this afternoon:

We have received many reports of a threat made against the school for tomorrow, March 14, 2018. The administration along with school police have thoroughly investigated all reported information and have found nothing credible to substantiate a threat to our school. We are very thankful students and parents have come forward with various information as we must all work together to keep us all safe. If you ever receive any concerning information in the overnight hours, please call our local police at Precinct 4.

ORIGINAL POST, 3:41 P.M.

The day before students are staging gun-control “walkout” protests, Cobb schools issued a reminder that all campuses will be closed to “visitors” on Wednesday.

This doesn’t include parents dropping off or picking up their children. Cobb schools are on an early release schedule Wednesday, with high schools letting out at 11:30 a.m., followed by elementary schools at 12:30 p.m. and middle schools at 1:30 p.m. The rest of the afternoon is a professional learning day for teachers.Cobb schools open on Friday

The Cobb County School District is not endorsing the walkouts and is threatening to subject those students who do to its code of conduct.

Walkouts are planned nationwide for 17 minutes at 10 a.m. as part of what’s being called National School Walkout, to honor the 17 victims of the Feb. 14 high school shootings in Parkland, Fla., and to advocate for gun control.

Students at Walton, Lassiter, Pope and other East Cobb high schools have said hundreds of students have signed an online petition to take part.

Individual schools have been given latitude to conduct their own observances as an alternative. Cobb schools cited safety reasons and conducting an undisrupted school day for its decision.

Related coverage

J.J. Daniel Middle School will conduct a 17-minute period of “observation and reflection” and a school-wide moment of silence. Students also will participate in a 17-day student “walk-up challenge,” in which they will be asked to get acquainted with 17 students they don’t already know.

Walton High School is holding a memorial service before classes as part of a #WhatsYour17 effort for students to engage in acts of kindness.

A visitor invited to attend the Walton event is Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who said in his remarks at Tuesday’s commissioners’ meeting that such an alternative to a walkout “is making it into a teaching moment.”

The Cobb schools statement issued today didn’t indicate whether media wishing to cover Wednesday events would be considered “visitors” or not. East Cobb News was initially denied a request to cover the Walton service at the school level; we’ve got a call into the CCSD for clarification.

The Cobb office of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was holding a press conference later this afternoon at Pope High School to support the right of students to walk out and “to make sure that any consequences which result are fair and not excessive or disparate.”

 

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