Letter to the Editor-March 22, 2018

Wednesday the 14th was National School Walkout Day. This was created so that students could honor the 17 students who lost their lives, and to show that we are not okay with gun violence. All we asked was for 17 minutes, which was the set time. Berkeley County did not want students going out, but several students including myself did. We peacefully stood outside of our classrooms, not talking, laughing, or anything disrespectful. After about 5 minutes, our principal walked by and told us that we needed to go back to class. We stayed outside so that we could use our first amendment right to freedom of speech, and freedom to protest. Nobody else told us to go back into the classroom after that, so we stayed out for the remaining minutes. We went through the school day waiting for our consequence to be decided. At around 2:30, students were called into the assistant principal’s office by the class that we were in. The administration told us that it was just a warning, no ISS (in school suspension), and no OSS (out of school suspension). Before we had to sign our papers saying that we left class, they told us that it was a referral, which goes on our permanent records. Getting a referral means not being able to do field day or any other whole grade activities that are given for good behavior. I and the other students didn’t really do anything wrong. Other schools around South Carolina were allowed to go outside and hold signs while we were given 170 seconds of silence.

Katie Shrouds

Eighth grader, Daniel Island School