As high school and college students across the country prepare for walk-out protests on March 14, Waltham High School leaders are encouraging students to protest without leaving school grounds. In a March 9 letter sent home to students’ parents, Principal Gregory DeMeo explained the school’s alternative to the planned protest: a short meeting in the gym during the scheduled walk-out, according to a March 9 Wicked Local article.

The proposed WHS walk-out that prompted DeMeo’s letter is part of a national protest movement. “Students at schools around the nation … will leave their classes for 17 minutes beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday to honor the 17 victims gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.,” a March 9 Boston Globe article explained. Similar walk-out protests have already happened at other Boston-area high schools.

DeMeo’s proposal instead encourages students to walk to the gym, where the Parkland shooting victims’ names will be read and a moment of silence observed, the Wicked Local article explained. Students “will also be given information in their history classes on how to write letters to state and national legislators,” continuing the spirit of teenager-driven activism which characterizes this walk-out protest, according to the same article.

Other high schools around Boston have proposed their own alternatives to the walk-outs. According to the Boston Globe article, these alternatives include having students “walk around the school’s track for 17 minutes” or having participants  “listen to student speakers talk about gun control.”

Describing the WHS alternative to the walk-out, DeMeo wrote in his letter, “This program provides our students who are passionate about this cause with an opportunity to show their support in a safe and productive manner.”

 —Jocelyn Gould