Only one singular student out of the 580 who compose the student body of Perry High School participated in Friday’s National School Walkout in recognition of the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School mass murder near Littleton, Colo., in which two students shot 13 people and injured more than 20 before turning their guns on themselves.
Xavier Meeke of Perry, a sophomore in the Talented and Gifted program at PHS, walked out of the high school at 10 a.m. Friday in solidarity with thousands of other students in “a nationwide protest of our leaders’ failure to pass laws that protect us from gun violence,” according to indivisible.org, which helped organize the protest.
But in Perry, Meeke stood alone.
“Nobody else wants to support it, I guess,” said the soft-spoken teenager Friday morning outside the schoolhouse. “Nobody from Perry really cares, but I think everybody should care. I mean, it’s a tragedy and could have been prevented if we had stricter gun laws.”
More than 2,600 walkouts were planned across the country, and about 1,000 students gathered at the Iowa Statehouse in Des Moines, according to media reports. Many kept a 13-second moment of silence for the 13 victims of gun violence at Columbine. Meeke said the number of protesters at PHS would have been larger if the school’s band and choir were not out of town at an event, but the overall reaction of students was indifference.
“Perry just didn’t really seem that affected,” he said. “Like, I noticed everybody around me just didn’t really care. They talked about it. They joked about it, but nobody was, like, ‘That’s a tragedy,’ except from some of the kids on the band and choir trip. They actually cared, but then they’re gone for the day.”
“I’m the only one left to walk out,” Meeke said.
Friday’s Columbine anniversary walkout was the third nationally organized student protest since 17 people were shot and killed Feb. 14 at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Students first walked out of classes March 14 and then held rallies across the country later in the month.
Teen spokespersons for the movement say lawmakers have not done enough to prevent school shootings despite a decadeslong national debate and the steady toll of school killings since Columbine. The indignation expressed by the Florida students is muted in Perry.
“Nobody cares here,” Meeke said. “It’s something we should care about. A lot of kids died, those in the Florida shooting and the Columbine shooting. It’s terrible and could have been prevented if you didn’t sell frickin’ AR-15s to minors.”
Meeke is no principled pacifist and does not advocate banning all guns, a position only heard as a cannard in National Rifle Association propaganda.
“Guns aren’t necessarily bad,” he said. “I feel like a man should be able to carry a weapon on him, like a pistol, and everyone should be able to defend themselves, but I don’t believe they should have AR-15s when they’re, like, 18. You shouldn’t be able to have an assault rifle at 18. We shouldn’t allow kids with actual mental disorders and have bad pasts to be able to carry a weapon as well. I think we should be more strict when it comes to that.”
Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger said the attitude of students is not one of simple indifference. He said many students are busy with other matters as the school year winds down.
“I’m a little bit surprised that we didn’t have more kids that walked out, because we had talked about it, and we said that we were there to support them,” said the 23-year veteran of PHS. “I think there’s some strong feelings out there, but I also think that, particularly among my seniors, we’re down to twenty-some days of school. They’ve got to grind out some work, and they know it. I think that gets in the way, too. I don’t think it means they care any less. It’s just that life continues at a fast pace, and everybody’s got things to do.”
Marburger said the conversations he and other school staff had with students emphasized the importance of communicating with lawmakers and making their opinions known.
“I think the kids need to know that we are nothing but supportive of them voicing their opinions on gun control and safety in schools,” Marburger said. “It’s not supposed to be a day off. It’s supposed to be about the victims of these terrible tragedies and what we can do different at the state legislator level. One of the things we asked Xavier and a couple of the other kids when they did ask about it was ‘Have you written your legislators? You’ve got to get your opinion out to them.’ We want them to know change doesn’t only come about through walkouts.”
PCSD Superintendent Clark Wicks also expressed his support for the students’ right to walk out — or not walk out.
“In general,” Wicks said, “I think it was good that kids had a chance speak their piece. Not many here in Perry did, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t care. It just means they’re good, studious kids and they’re in the classroom, so there’s a flipside to that.”
Meeke remained emphatic about student indifference. So what do the students of Perry High School care about if they do not care about school shootings?
“They don’t really care about anything,” Meeke said. “They just care about school.”
