CRESTVIEW – At precisely 10 a.m. Wednesday, hundreds of students across the country walked out of their classrooms to protest gun violence, but this didn’t happen at Crestview High School.
Principal Andrew Ditlevson had no intention of disciplining students who utilized their First-Amendment rights, but he was hopeful the high schoolers would stay indoors if given an opportunity to voice their opinions in a different way.
He organized an event that encouraged students to talk about gun violence and school safety. Crestview teachers held a 17-minute “time of reflection” when walkouts were expected to take place, and later, students asked eight community and school leaders questions during an hour-long “thoughts and prayers” panel.
“I feel like in schools everywhere, kids are walking out because they feel like nobody’s listening to them, and they feel like they don’t have a voice, and they want to make people listen, and that’s a way to do it,” one student, Talia said to the panel. “I think today would be very different if you weren’t here. I think a lot of kids would have walked out.”
The idea
When Ditlevson received news that 17 people were killed last month at a high school in Parkland, Florida, he decided to do something.
“For some reason, that just resonated with me. And although there’s been periodic shootings ever since Columbine, there was something about this that just affected me,” he said.
The following Sunday, his pastor spoke about “thoughts and prayers.” Often after a tragic event, social media users will send their “thoughts and prayers” to victims and their families by simply typing well wishes into a string of other similar comments. After that, the conversation ends.
“My pastor was saying, ‘What if we took that literally and started thinking about these things and beyond that, we started listening to one another,’” Ditlevson recalled.
He was inspired.
“From there, I said, what if we had a whole series of events or a day?” Ditlevson said.
When he saw that students across the country planned to walk out of their classes on March 14, he realized an opportunity.
“Our thought process at Crestview was to turn something that could have potentially been chaotic and potentially not safe – walk outs — into a teachable moment,” he said.
A two-hour delay meant plans needed revised, but the day started at 9:30 a.m. with an optional half hour of prayer.
“It was really cool to see that. Teachers, students, school administrators joining in their faith with the purpose of making our school a better place,” Ditlevson said.
At 10 a.m., Crestview teachers were instructed to provide a “time of reflection,” where students could discuss what was going on for 17 minutes as an alternative to walking out. No one left their classroom, and Ditlevson heard positive feedback.
But the day wasn’t over yet.
The panel
At about 1:55 p.m., high school students funneled into the auditorium for a panel discussion with eight local leaders: Richland County Sheriff Steve Sheldon, Chaplain Gary Lambert, Richland County Commissioner Tony Vero, Ashland County Commissioner Jim Justice, school board member Debbie Reidy, Sam Speck of Bethel Baptist Church and Crestview High School Counselor Kate McGookey. Superintendent Randy Dunlap was also in attendance.
“I’d literally don’t expect us to walk out of here with any solution to school violence or school safety. If that were the case, we probably would’ve already done that because it’s a big problem and a complicated problem,” Ditlevson said.
“I want our students to know our elected officials care and they’re here to listen and they want to know what the students’ concerns are.”
For the first portion of the discussion, students asked panel members questions. Students were instructed to raise their hand and Ditlevson called them forward one at a time.
The first student to approach the microphone suggested that Crestview bring on a full-time police officer and place “safety buckets” around the school. Later, another student suggested metal detectors.
“There are people who stand around and say it’s never going to happen, but it is happening, and this is our time to do something about it,” the first student said.
She mentioned how several area schools – Madison, Pioneer and even Crestview Middle School – have received bomb threats. Last week, Mansfield High School went into lockdown after a student was caught with a pellet gun outside the building.
“I know personally when the Middle School was under a bomb threat, I was terrified. My little sister is a middle schooler, and I didn’t know where she was at. I was scared for her safety,” the Crestview high schooler said.
She wanted to know how the panel would feel in her situation – if one of their loved ones was in that type of danger.
“I paced the halls,” said school board member Debbie Reidy.
She was remembering when she first heard the news of terrorist attack in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. Her son was there. And when he finally called, she could hear sirens in the background.
At a recent meeting, Reidy said, school security was discussed in-depth. It’s an item at “the top of the agenda.”
The second student to speak, Talia, noted how unsafe she feels at the beginning of the school day. Students are kept in one room.
“In the morning, half the student body … is caged in. I don’t like to come to school in the morning because I don’t want to stand there and be scared,” she said.
Ditlevson promised to address this.
“I’m aware of that. I’m aware that that’s a vulnerable situation,” he said.
After this, the conversation shifted to teachers with guns.
“What would it take to arm them?” one student asked.
Commissioner Tony Vero jumped in to answer this. He explained, first, laws would have to allow that guns be taken into the building. He asked in return, “Should teachers be armed?”
He took it to a vote. Not everyone in the room raised their hands, but the ones that did provided a split vote.
“I don’t think we should have that many guns in the school, but if there’s someone to stop the threat when they first come into the school rather than waiting for the police to get there and potentially that person killing more students. I think that’s a good idea,” one student said.
Another student was worried less about guns and more about getting to the root cause.
“I feel like one big problem we’re having is that people aren’t being educated on the value of a life … Within the past 10 years, we’ve already had two suicides. I really wonder if those would have happened if people were able to voice how they were feeling,” he said.
“I just feel like a lot of this could be fixed easier if we stopped asking who should and shouldn’t have a gun … Just stop and sit down and ask somebody something sometime.”
At 2:55 p.m., students needed to be dismissed to go home, but still several hands remained raised. Students were encouraged to email any further questions and concerns.
