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Students at Mt. Diablo High School in Concord broke through a gate to leave campus for Wednesday’s nationwide 17-minute walkout from class to protest gun violence.
Mt. Diablo High staff locked main gates around campus before the 10 a.m. walkout, but students broke through a back gate to walk down Grant Street around 10:15 a.m. to continue their march, shouting “enough is enough” before administrators took them back to campus. Some held signs with messages protesting gun violence.
After the students ran through the gate, school administrators quickly ordered students back to campus.
One student, who was rushed back to campus before she could identify herself, said she wanted to participate after seeing gun violence affect schools across the country.
“We thought gun control is a big issue in this country,” said the girl, noting other school students who have been impacted by mass shootings. “We don’t want our school to be the next one.”
The action was over in several minutes, and students were brought back to campus.
School principal Lorne Barbosa said he was not necessarily opposed to students participating in protests, but that after the student government decided not to do a walkout, the school was not expecting a march to leave campus. He said parents might not want students leaving campus.
The school did make an announcement over the loudspeaker at about 10 a.m. to honor the victims of gun violence.
The students who left walked immediately back when administrators said they would make calls to parents.
According to a statement from Mt. Diablo Unified School District Superintendent Nellie Meyer, the gate the students busted through is usually locked during school hours to prevent vehicles driving on the public street that runs through campus.
“These students, during the time of remembrance, chose to show their protest by breaking a gate in the street rather than walking to an open exit nearby,” Meyer said.
It’s unclear though whether students knew of the open exit nearby. Some students noted that while many gates, including the back gate that was busted open by students on Tuesday, are kept locked, there is usually a gate near the main entrance of the school that is open. On Tuesday, it was locked, several students said.
Lila Souza, a sophomore who had tried to help organize students to participate in an action to support the nationwide protest, said she did not expect students to break down the gate. The original plan was to march around and then off campus for 17 minutes — each minute representing a victim in the Parkland shooting — but when the group of marching students saw the front entrance gate locked, they headed toward the back gate, and some eventually rammed it open.
She was disappointed that the event turned somewhat destructive. “That was not my idea of a peaceful protest,” Souza said, but later noted she was even more disappointed that staff prevented them from walking out.
“We continue to be very proud of the 8,000 students who chose to protest peacefully and productively,” district superintendent Meyer said, noting that each school in the district had planned activities and opportunities for remembering victims of the school shootings.
“Speeches were given, tears were shed, and adults were directed to not stop any students from walking out,” Meyer said.
At one Concord high school, she said, the names of the victims from the high school in Florida were read over the school intercom before students peacefully walked out and lined Concord Blvd. in front of the high school, and students at another school carried signs with the victims faces to the school football field. Information about early voter registration from the League of Women Voters was available to juniors and seniors at all the district high schools, she said.
High school students across the country participated in walk-outs, marches and rallies on and near school campuses on Wednesday, part of a nationwide statement against gun violence a month after a former student fatally shot 17 classmates and staff at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
Across the Bay Area, schools had varying responses to the protests. Some warned there would be consequences for missing class, while others were structuring ways for students to participate on or near campuses.
The American Civil Liberties Union was circulating an online guide for students to be aware of their rights in protesting. While schools can discipline students for missing class, they can’t legally impose harsher punishment for political action, said ACLU national political director Faiz Shakir in an email campaign about the online guide.
“Students are leading the way and showing us just how much is possible when we’re not afraid to fight for our safety, our rights, and our future,” the email message said. “We all need to use our voice and use our rights – because that’s what makes change.”
Samantha Martinez, 14, a freshman at Mt. Diablo, said she wanted to participate in the walkout because gun violence around the country has become a problem for schools. “It’s not the way it’s supposed to be.”
Souza, the sophomore organizer, said students around the school have strong feelings about the gun issue.
“It’s scary whenever you come to school and you don’t know, there’s always a possibility of getting shot up, the school,” she said. “The Florida shooting — that’s a school like Mt Diablo … It was upsetting that it could happen just like that, to any of us.”
