Precinct Reporter Group News

Top Menu

  • Precinct Reporter News
  • Food
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Buy Adspace
  • Hide Ads for Premium Members

Main Menu

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Read Our E-Edition
  • ADVERTISE
  • Subscribe
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login
  • Precinct Reporter News
  • Food
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Buy Adspace
  • Hide Ads for Premium Members

logo

Precinct Reporter Group News

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Read Our E-Edition
  • ADVERTISE
  • Subscribe
  • Trump Budget: Largest Cut to Food Assistance in History

  • Charlie Sampson Rodeo: Brought To Life in Norco

  • Space Beach Summer Camp Inspires Next Generation

  • Trustees Warn of Cuts to Social Security, Medicare

  • Medi-Cal Cuts: Health Leaders Warn Care Crisis Ahead

Latest PRGNews
Home›Latest PRGNews›Local Students Unite for National Walk Out

Local Students Unite for National Walk Out

By Precinct Reporter News
April 12, 2018
3834
0
Share:

By Dianne Anderson

Along with hundreds of thousands of other American students, San Bernardino is uniting for change in gun laws, and to remember so many students that have lost their lives on campuses across America.

On Friday, April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine massacre, students will take to the podiums to pressure politicians for stricter gun control. The walkouts will begin between noon and 12:30 p.m. at citywide San Bernardino schools.

Anthony Caughron, a local student and member of CHORDS Enrichment Youth Program, will perform along with many other students in the group at the rally meet up point, San Bernardino Community SDA Church at 3:00 p.m. across from San Bernardino High School.

Since the Feb. 14 Parkland, Florida high school mass shooting that left 17 dead, hundreds of thousands of students have walked out classrooms to draw attention to laws that most are not yet old enough to vote on.

Caughron said the students he knows are not talking about school shootings in a gun control kind of way because they think shootings happen outside the school gate.

“They don’t worry about it, or they say they want to shoot back,” he said, although reasoning, “If they have a gun, and you have a gun, who’s going to shoot first?”

Edwin Johnson said some local teens have a different perspective about school violence and mass shootings. He hears how some students feel removed from the impact because they live in “the hood,” or ideas of shoot first before they get shot.

“Most of my kids say, ‘we’ll get them before they get us,’ or they say mass shootings don’t happen in the hood because there are always shootings outside the gate, down the street,” he said.

Because gun violence is an everyday awareness with local kids, he worries about the long-term impact of stress. Kids come to school to get a break from living in the hard parts of the community.

“They’re from the hood, they see this every day. It’s crazy for this to happen at school because a lot of them see school as a safe haven,” he said. “For a lot of kids, school is a place to get lunch, and a safe escape.”

In partnering with SBCUSD, the CHORDS program works with four high schools, including San Bernardino High School, Pacific, Arroyo Valley and San Gorgonio high schools, serving about 80 students.

Johnson said the program also allows students an important creative outlet to express their concerns and for adults to understand what they would otherwise internalize.

Ad 23

He is also concerned that local kids are already traumatized by the stress of gun violence. In the past, if there was a lockdown during after school hours, it was usually because something happened down the street.

Lately, he said the kids more on edge and ready to hit the floor.

“The feeling is different. Now when they say it’s locked down because something happened down the street, people are in fear for their lives,” he said.

He said that giving the kids an opportunity to write out their own lyrics is a sort of self-help way to process their reality.

“They’re telling the world their story through their performances,” he said.

So far, the National High School Walk-Out for Anti Gun Violence petition on Change.org, has garnered over 254,450 signatures to be submitted to the U.S. Senate.

Citing https://everytownresearch.org, the organization reports FBI data and other reports of 156 mass shootings from 2009 to 2016 in the U.S. With four or more shot and killed, totaling 848 shot and killed, and 339 shot and injured.

At the event, local senior Lynette Gomez, 17, is singing songs, one specifically addressing gun control. She said students everywhere are talking about the issue, but the fear is because they know they don’t have the direct control over policy at the highest levels.

“A lot of students at my school feel unsafe because it can happen in any school district, I don’t think it has to do with the area [of San Bernardino]. It has to do with the students,” said Gomez, who plans to pursue her teaching credentials.

Last month, she and her friends assembled to support gun control awareness, and she is glad to see students take a stronger role in expanding the discussion. That day, all of her classmates paid close attention to the students speaking from the Parkland shooting.

As more students unite, she feels there is a greater possibility to impact gun control for safer schools.

“It’s good that students are now learning to speak out and be heard, not only locally, but at the state [levels] and other countries. They’re learning to speak out for their own safety and the safety of their peers,” she said.

https://www.change.org/p/u-s-senate-national-high-school-walk-out-for-anti-gun-violence

TagsCHORDSeducationNatl WalkoutSan Bernardino SchoolsSBCUSD
Previous Article

Delmann Heights Applauds Youth Volunteer

Next Article

CSUSB Faculty Member Receives Cancer Research Award

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Precinct Reporter News

Related articles More from author

  • Latest PRGNews

    Educating Black Students in the New Jim Crow Era

    November 8, 2017
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    San Bernardino County Education Candidates

    September 3, 2020
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    UCR Hosts Black History Month Events

    February 11, 2021
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    LBCC Students Get Ready for Male Success Initiative

    January 26, 2023
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    SBCUSD Welcomes New Communications Director

    September 7, 2023
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    College Night & U-CAN College Fair Give Students Boost

    September 12, 2019
    By Precinct Reporter News

Leave a reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

You might be interested

  • Latest PRGNews

    Rep. Pete Aguilar Defends Reproductive Freedom

  • Latest PRGNews

    Black Barbershops: Attacking Mental Health Issues Head On

  • Latest PRGNews

    Thanksgiving is Good for Early Takers

Precinct Reporter News Group

Your local news resource for 50 years in the Inland Empire, Orange County, Long Beach and surrounding areas!

To subscribe or advertise, call 909.889.0597

About us

  • Broadcasting & Media Production Company
    357 W. 2nd Street
    San Bernardino, California, CA 92401
  • mailto:sales@precinctreporter.com
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Trump Budget: Largest Cut to Food Assistance in History

    By Precinct Reporter News
    July 3, 2025
  • Charlie Sampson Rodeo: Brought To Life in Norco

    By Precinct Reporter News
    July 3, 2025
  • Space Beach Summer Camp Inspires Next Generation

    By Precinct Reporter News
    July 3, 2025
  • Trump Budget: Largest Cut to Food Assistance in History

    By Precinct Reporter News
    July 3, 2025
  • Join our Recipe Competition!

    By PRGNews
    July 16, 2015
  • SB Budget Cuts CDBG

    SB CDBG Cuts Have Local Nonprofits Braced for the Worst

    By PRGNews
    July 16, 2015

Follow us

  • About
  • ADVERTISE
  • ARCHIVES
  • blog
  • Buy Adspace
  • Cart
  • Contact Us
  • Food Test
  • Hide Ads for Premium Members
  • Home MultipleColours2
  • Home MultipleColours3
  • Home Page
  • Home Sport
  • Home Sport2
  • Precinct Reporter News
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe
© Powered by Hotspotwebsites.net. All rights reserved.