Dover students walk out after Nashville shooting: 'We are dying and they're doing nothing'
DOVER — Dover High School students walked out of classes Thursday morning in protest of continued gun violence in America, motivated by the deadly shooting in a Nashville school on Monday.
At the Covenant School, a small private Christian school, a 28-year-old former student shot their way through the school and opened fire on children and school staff, killing three 9-year-olds and three adults. The shooter was killed by police shortly after making entry to the building.
Dover students’ 15-minute walkout commenced at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, reflecting the time of the first 911 call reporting the Covenant School shooting to the Metro Nashville Police Department on March 27.
Gathering in the school’s front courtyard, students penned calls for action on homemade signs, all seeking an end to gun violence and keeping children and schools safe from harm.
“Community and passionate young people are the start of change,” said Isabella Papa, a senior at the school and organizer of the walkout. “We are not here today to protest Dover High School, but to acknowledge the many schools across the country that have suffered from violence in their schools."
Papa noted students planned their walkout with school administration before it took place.
Charlotte Albert, a fellow senior, advocated for tightening firearm laws, implementing widespread background checks and requiring proper safety training for those who purchase guns.
“We also need to ban semi-automatic assault weapons and any other unnecessarily violent weapon. It is important to note that in order to make progress we must understand and respect the other side so they can do the same for us,” said Albert.
The victims in Nashville were students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, each of them 9 years old, in addition to substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, longtime school custodian Mike Hill, 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60, the head of the school.
After a citywide vigil was held in Nashville on Wednesday evening, hundreds of protesters arrived at the state capitol on Thursday to rally for gun control measures.
From Tennessee: Nashville school shooting updates: School employee says staff members carried guns
Dover High School senior Logan Lampel posed a question to his peers: “How much longer before our elected officials put the minds of students to heart and do something to save us?”
“We are dying and they are doing nothing,” Lampel added. “Write to your congressmen and women. Let them hear your voice.”
The Gun Violence Archive defines mass shootings as a single incident in which four or more are either injured or killed, not including the shooter. From the new year through the morning of Friday, March 31, the Gun Violence Archive reported, there have been 131 mass shootings in the United States.
The organization notes that in that same period, gun violence in America has claimed the lives of 426 minors and injured just shy of 1,000 more.
This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Dover NH students protest school shootings, honor Nashville victims
