Pacific Grove High holds Hangout on Walkout Day
Another Central Coast school wanted to show unity and be heard, but chose not to walk out after threatening messages were discovered on campus.
No one walked out today at PG High. Instead, students decided to stay in for what they called a “hangout.”
“The first person we will be honoring today is Alyssa Alhadeff. She was 14 years old and was a member of Parkland’s soccer club.”
That’s just one name of the 17 students and faculty killed last month in Parkland, Florida.
“Scott Beigel, Martin Duque Anguiano, Nicholas Dworet.”
But every victim’s name was read during a 17-minute tribute over Pacific Grove High School’s loud speaker.
“Jamie Guttenberg, Christopher Hixon, Luke Hoyer.”
The school turned walkout day into hang out day, in part because of recent threats warning of a shooting on this day.
“We are more so concerned for the overall student body’s safety, and we thought that this would be a way to both respect the students that have fallen, and also make sure that the lives of students here are alright,” said PG High Senior Annabell Davis.
It was an emotional day for students who say the names read are only a fraction of those killed by gun violence.
“This has been going on for too long. To know that these students have lost their lives because our government is not taking enough action to stop these terrible tragedies,” said PG High Senior Reem Benny.
“Cara Loughran, Gina Montalto, Joaquin Oliver, Alaina Petty.”
“I think we’re all tired of the government and people making excuses for why this keeps happening, because this does keep happening,” said Davis.
“Meadow Pollack, Helena Ramsay, Alex Schachter.”
PG students say they don’t want to read any more names this way, so they’re taking action. The hangout included group letter writing to politicians for more gun legislation, parents patrolling the campus perimeter, and a community discussion on how to feel safest on campus.
“It’s a small community doing amazing work with our students and it’s really just a great place to be today.It’s a positive atmosphere and I’m proud of our entire community,” said Pacific Grove Unified School District Superintendent, Ralph Porros.
“We hope that politicians will finally take our interests and our lives into consideration when creating legislation and not just the consideration of gun lobbies and large corporations,” said Benny.
So something like this:
“Carmen Schentrup, Peter Wang, Aaron Feis.”
Is never needed again.
“We need to make change. We can’t just be silent anymore,” said Davis.
Students also told us they’d be frequently having voter registration booths on campus to encourage kids to sign up. They still don’t have any leads about who left the threatening messages on campus, but we’ll keep you updated as we learn more.
