Eastwood students participate in National Walkout Day
Students across the country, including El Paso, took part in National School Walkout Day to protest gun violence and to call on lawmakers to pass stricter gun laws.
April 20th was the day chosen because it marked the 19th anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School.
Eastwood High School was one of the schools from El Paso to participate in Friday’s walkout. The school’s principal said the district wanted to allow students to express themselves.
The walkout at Eastwood was a collaborative effort between students and school administrators.
The school sent out a letter to parents on Thursday stating that students were going to be allowed to participate in the walkout if they wanted to.
At 10 a.m. Friday morning, about 300 students walked out of class and walked around the school before meeting at the football field for a rally.
Faculty was on hand along the route to make sure things didn’t get out of hand and after it was over the students returned to class.
While the majority of the students were in favor of gun control, some who joined the walkout spoke out in favor of gun rights.
Those in favor of gun rights held signs and chanted, “Come and take it!”
George Trillo, a junior at Eastwood who helped organize Friday’s walkout, said he first met with Eastwood principal David Boatright early in the week about his plan for the walkout.
Trillo says working alongside school administrators was a reason that Friday’s walkout was a success in getting the message across and also doing it in a positive way.
“They (school administrators) made sure that it not only took place, but took place in the right way,” Trillo said. “They supported us. They cared about us and I couldn’t be happier with the way our administration handled things.”
Principal Boatright said there no problems during the walkout and he was happy with how his staff and students responded.
“We’re here to develop leaders and we don’t want to shut them down,” Boatright said. “We want them to be able to express themselves appropriately and do it in the right form and I believe they did that here.”
