Valley school officials voiced support for student-led school walkouts planned for Wednesday honoring the victims of last month’s school shooting in Florida.
Seventeen people were killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Feb. 14.
In the weeks since, students from the school have become passionate advocates calling on political leaders to take actions that will lead to fewer school shootings in the future.
On Wednesday a national school walkout is planned one month to the day of the Florida shooting.
Local school officials say the walkouts will be a chance for students and adults to honor the victims of last month’s massacre and seek answers to the question of how to prevent more violence.
MERLONE, CONWAY, WILSON STUFF?
Shelton Schools Superintendent Christopher Clouet shared a thoughtful, two-page letter Monday in which he pledged support for a walkout at Shelton High School led by student council leaders, but said students are also free to remain in school with teachers.
In the letter, Clouet said high school students “have deep feelings about the violence in schools which has now sadly become a tragic pattern.”
But rather than outline specific policy recommendations to change that pattern, Clouet said people should first ask a simple question — “Why?”
“Why are young men, choosing to go into schools to murder dozens of students and staff?” the superintendent wrote. “Why do adults seem powerless to stop the on-going series of school shootings? Why can’t we, as a nation, do better? This is a moment in our collective history that begs the question: why?”
Clouet’s letter is posted below.
On the Issue of a School Walkout by The Valley Indy on Scribd