Walton principal Judy McNeill

UPDATED Thursday, March 8, 1:33 p.m.

Since we posted this, Judy McNeill has sent out a letter to the Walton community, indicating that a pre-school memorial observation on March 14 will begin at 7:50 a.m. and will include the following:

• A moment of silence and reflection for the victims and their families.
• A reading of the names of the victims.
• Tables set up to receive letters written by students to local representatives and officials expressing student concerns and ideas for change.

At this event, she wrote, “All students are invited to participate to express their condolences for the lives lost and express any concerns and ideas for change.”

The alternate event is being organized by the Walton Principal’s Leadership Committee.

McNeill also wrote that for students who walk out at 10 a.m., “this is an unexcused absence and will count against incentive.”

ORIGINAL POST: Wednesday, March 7, 3:06 p.m.:

After we posted earlier this week about planned student gun-control walkouts March 14 at Walton High School, Principal Judy McNeill is telling us that another group of students will be holding a separate event before school on that day.

She also said she’s asking for additional police support on what’s being called National Student Walkout Day.

In an interview with East Cobb News, McNeill said several of the students who met with her last week, including some in Walton’s current senior class, will be commemorating the 17 victims of the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting before the school day next Wednesday, as she had suggested.

Other students have said they want to “walk out ” of their classes for 17 minutes, starting at 10 a.m., in accordance with the national protest, which the Cobb County School District does not support.

“We need to have an activity that will be endorsed by the whole school,” McNeill said.

She said the students who are meeting before school next Wednesday will be holding up individual signs and conducting other observances in the memory of the Florida victims.

Those students favoring the walkout say they have gotten RSVPs from 2,300 of the nearly 2,700 students at Walton, but McNeill said it’s her understanding the number of students who have signed up online is about 1,000 students.

They had been tentatively planning to walk to the Walton football stadium, a move school officials have discouraged. McNeill said the stadium area, known as Raider Valley, is usually unlocked during the school day.

Students who would enter the stadium area would be doing so “not with any school support,” McNeill said, although they may have to show their IDs to get in. “I’m very, very worried about their safety.”

“They could do something that would be so much more meaningful than to get up and walk,” she said, adding that outsiders will not be allowed on campus.

The district has said previously that students who walk out would be violating the student code of conduct pertaining to disruption of the school day. The CCSD cited safety reasons for its decision.

All 16 Cobb high school principals were meeting with district staff today in a regular, previously scheduled meeting on a number of topics. The possibility of deciding punitive action was expected to be raised, but McNeill said she had no indication what those actions might be.

Walton students are in 4th period classes at the 10 o’clock hour. McNeill said she’s had discussions with teachers about “class-appropriate” activities for students who stay in their classrooms, and there also could be a school-wide message relayed on the intercom during that time as well.

“We have lots of ideas floating around,” she said.

Walton had two code-red drills last week, and she said they were both successful. Getting used to the new four-story classroom building that opened in August has taken some time. After a fire drill last fall, she admitted that “we had to learn some things.”

McNeill said “we spend a lot of time” preparing the school community on safety measures, including teachers having to watch videos on active shooter situations.

Principals at other Cobb schools also are beginning to communicate with their students and parents about alternate walkout day activities.

On Monday, Sprayberry High School Principal Joseph Sharp sent a letter to parents saying he’s working with students “to identify an appropriate way” and with parental groups “to create non-disruptive activities and opportunities” to honor the Florida victims.

“I cannot support or endorse allowing our students, your children, to participate in walking out of school which could place them into a potentially dangerous situation,” Sharp wrote.

 

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