Portsmouth students take a stand for school safety

More than 300 walk to PHS track, others gather for assembly

By Jim McGaw
Posted 3/14/18

PORTSMOUTH — The potential threat of suspension gone, more than 300 Portsmouth High School students chose to walk out Wednesday morning and head down to the school’s running track in …

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Portsmouth students take a stand for school safety

More than 300 walk to PHS track, others gather for assembly

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — The potential threat of suspension gone, more than 300 Portsmouth High School students chose to walk out Wednesday morning and head down to the school’s running track in memory of the 17 people who died in the Feb. 14 Florida school shooting.

A smaller number of students, meanwhile, attended a Student Council-led assembly in the PHS field house, also known as “the new gym.” There, the names of all 17 Parkland victims were read, followed by a moment of silence for each.

Students who did not wish to participate in the assembly or walkout were directed to report to the cafeteria in order to make it easier for faculty to account for all pupils.

The National Walkout Day event, which marked the one-month anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., seemingly went off without a hitch.

“It went very well — very smooth,” Police Chief Thomas Lee said after students made their way back to the main school building. “The kids were all respectful and some of them decided to walk the track. That was fine.”

“We have supervision at all three areas,” Principal Joseph Amaral said hours before the event began. “It’s an extraordinary event and some of the kids are really excited about voicing their opinions, so we want to give them the opportunity to do so.”

In the weeks leading up to Wednesday, some students and parents had expressed anxiety over the possibility of suspensions for students who chose to walk out, since that violates the PHS Student Handbook. At a PHS parent organization meeting last week, however, Mr. Amaral told parent and local news blogger John McDaid there would be no suspensions for those students.

Tim Jackson was among the many students who scaled a mound of snow and headed down the Patriot Way footpath to the track. The senior said he chose that option because it was a stronger statement than sitting in the gym.

“I feel like this whole walkout thing is obviously to honor the victims of Parkland,” he said. “But also, a major part of it is that kids our age need to learn that they have a voice and if we group up and demand change, Washington itself can’t say no to that. We’re the largest age group, and if the largest age group bands together and says, ’No, we’re not going to get shot in our own school anymore and we want to feel safe in our school,’ they’re not going to have another choice.” 

Henry Gibson and Michael Tavares also walked down to the track. “We just want to do something else and actually be active as opposed to sitting inside of the school,” said Michael.

“The people in the gym are honoring the victims, but they're not really doing anything to protest,” added Henry. “We wanted to do something outside the school.”

Several teachers, including Tim Ryan, also walked the track with students as a show of support. “Kids have a lot more power than we think. There are lots of good kids out there and people don't realize what they can do,” said Mr. Ryan.

John Stack, PHS senior class president and one of the organizers of the gym assembly, said he respected the stand taken by the “walkout” participants. “All credit to them for doing that; they want to make change and that’s what they chose to do,” he said.

The Student Council came up with the idea for the indoor assembly because it was the safest option for everyone, he said. 

“It offers them a chance to speak their mind and express themselves, all while being safe inside the gym,” said John, noting it was important for all students to have a voice on the issue. “We want to make it as safe as possible, especially with what happened a couple of weeks ago. It’s obviously close to home with that incident. We want to make it better for all of us.”

Shortly before February vacation, a rumor started going around that a PHS student had threatened to “shoot up” the school on March 5. The rumor was thoroughly investigated by police and was found to be baseless, said Mr. Amaral.

The rumor came only six weeks after a former student allegedly assaulted a teacher in the PHS field house and less than a month after the mass school shooting in Florida, creating anxiety among many students and parents.

For some, a change of heart

Mr. Amaral, Chief Lee and Detective Lt. Michael Arnold were keeping a close eye on students who made their way down to the track Wednesday. The principal said he believed that roughly a third of the school’s approximately 900 students had either gone to the gym, the track or the cafeteria.

That’s how it appeared at first, anyway. Shortly after 10 a.m., dozens of students who first went to the gym apparently had a change of heart and headed back out and toward the track.

“Yes, some of the kids originally went to the gym, and it looked like they decided to walk the track,” Chief Lee said. “They walked the track in silence for 17 minutes and then they came back and went inside the school. There were no issues at all.”

Portsmouth Middle School students were also given the option of memorializing the Parkland victims by walking out through the main entranceway while being supervised by faculty. 

“Character building can also be a topic of discussion in advisories and/or during the day as students have the choice to list 17 character traits that they could do during the school day,” Principal João Arruda stated in a message sent to parents the night before.

There was also a police presence at the middle school, Chief Lee said. “That’s concluded and there were no issues there, either,” he said.

One more name added

Inside the gym, Lexi Caron, secretary of the PHS senior class, stood at a podium and read the names of the 17 students and faculty members who died in the Parkland school shooting, followed by a moment of silence for each.

She talked about Peter Wang, 15, who was “holding a door so that others could escape”; Helena Ramsay, 17, who was “somewhat reserved but was dedicated to her academic studies”; Chris Hixon, the school’s athletic director who was fatally injured when he raced to the scene to help students; and Alex Schachter, 14, who played trombone in the band and “just wanted to make his parents happy.”

Then one more name was read — that of Nathan Bruno, a 15-year-old PHS student who died suddenly on Feb. 7. Nathan’s name was read by his friend, Amelia Reed, the sophomore class president.

“We all grew up with him and feel he’s still a part of us,” Ameila said after the assembly. “Everyone knew who he was. We all miss him a lot.”

With additional reporting by Julie Furtado.

National School Walkout, Portsmouth High School, Portsmouth Middle School, Portsmouth Police Department

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.