Walk Out at Animo Jefferson

On Wednesday , March 14, 2018 students from Animo Jefferson Charter Middle School, walked out in order to show respect to the 17 students at the Parkland school shooting. The students at Animo Jefferson also wanted to walk out for the reason of showing that they should make gun laws stricter. The students and teachers all had different perspectives on what happened that day. The principal and staff members all wanted to help out and make sure nothing happened that day to the students. Some students may say that the staff went a little far on protecting them.

An eighth grade math teacher, Thomas Lo, thinks the walk out was inappropriate  behavior. He said, “I thought there was a lot of confusion. The execution of it was not appropriate. “He also showed a lot of anger and disappointment during that time the walk out occurred.

Did the students even care about being involved in the walkouts? Well, many staff were interested into hearing that students were involved in the walkout. “I think that its a positive thing for the students and they should have meaningful reasons why they are doing this not just to get out of class,’’ said Mario Garcia, a Campus Security Officer. Students should be involved in these sort of things because their voices can be heard and someone can do something about it.

Should students have a say in what they believe? Eighth grade student Kimberly Pena believes, “[To] stand up for what’s right even if your standing alone.” Kimberly is one of the small percentage of students that actually walked out for the right reason. She believes that the walk out was a way of expressing herself and now is planning a more organized walkout taking place on April 20, 2018. She hopes that you will take part but be mature about it.

How do you think the Principal of the school would react when he heard about the walkout? Edgar Flota, the principal of Animo Jefferson Charter Middle School, was in charge of students’ safety and that making sure everything went well during the time of the walkout. Here is how he reacted? “It was disappointing to see students screaming, horse-playing, and not really knowing the purpose of the walkout.”