Commentary: Walking Out Makes a Statement, But Staying Out Makes Change

We’ve experienced at least four threats and two lockdowns in four years.

Others across the nation — whether in Aztec, N.M. or Parkland, Fla. — have sparked a plan to instigate change, encouraging a national student walkout for 17 minutes on March 14. But a walkout will not make a lasting, significant difference.

The way I see it, a walkout makes a bold statement, but what happens when you come back to class? We return a little bit more pissed off, a little bit more upset, and a little bit more annoyed.

But, we still return.

We still takes notes in history class and we still prepare to take that test on the War of 1812 on Thursday. We still hustle through the halls on Friday, and the movement will likely be forgotten by Monday.

The point is, if we walk out for a chunk of the school day, we aren’t really putting anything on the line or pressuring Washington to do anything. We aren’t proving we are serious, and something that could have been written in the textbooks or even precipitated a constitutional amendment will be dismissed as another “millennial attempt” at civil disobedience, and once again we’ll be seen as “those teens with short attention spans.”

Good luck making a lasting statement if we don’t show we care more about gun violence than our GPAs or a certificate for perfect attendance.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we haven’t made progress or that we won’t make a difference. I’m saying we’ve barely scratched the surface, and we need to take advantage of the timeliness to make lasting effects.

In the 1960s, blacks protested segregated bus systems by “walking out” for over a year. Public transportation in the South nearly went out of business. When a capitalist entity is faced with the potential loss of money — the root of all problems — they respond. The buses were forced to desegregate, but I doubt that would have happened if the movement lasted only 17 minutes.

Posted over 2 million times, #BoyCottNRA, may have pushed Delta, United, and First National Bank of Omaha to terminate contracts with the NRA, but FedEx and plenty of others still haven’t.

So, walk out with me. Walk out to show your solidarity with students across the nation, but DO NOT STOP THERE.

Don’t just update your Facebook status or post “one like = one prayer #PrayForParkland” on Instagram. Text, call, write, and constantly pester senators and congressmen. Put something on the line. Walk out and stay out because our lives mean more than an “A” on a transcript or qualifying for State. Stay out of NRA-endorsed outlets, stay out of school, and stay out of the expectation that this movement will “die out.”

Walking out makes a statement, but staying out will make change.