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26 The GUIDE to YELLOW SPRINGS 2019 – 20 YELLOW SPRINGS NEWS Dr. Todd McManus O.D. and Assoc. 937-319-6376 • 1496 Southgate Ave., Yellow Springs • Accepting new patients • Designer frame selection • Value packs for both single vision & bifocals • Coupon in the Yellow Springs News Award-winning Career Tech Programs for High School Juniors & Seniors Earn college credit, scholarships, industry certifications & job opportunities . High School Programs Building the Workforce Service Company,Inc. How well do you know your LOCAL PLUMBING & HEATING COMPANY? 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By YS NEWS STAFF W ell over 100 local students, joined by a few faculty and parents, walked out of school on March 14, 2018, as part of National School Walkout, protest - ing gun violence and urging gun control legislation. Students at hundreds of schools around the country took part in the walkout, held one month after the shooting deaths of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Organized by eighth-grade performance students and others, the local walkout at McKinney Middle/Yellow Springs High School featured student speakers reading biographies they had created of each of the 14 students and three school staff members killed in the Florida mass shooting. Student speakers also urged action. “This is where it begins,” one speaker said. “Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough.” In an interview with the News prior to the walkout, Assistant Principal Jack Hatert said school administrators would not be seeking disciplinary action against students who took part in the student-organized event. “We’re not looking to provide conse- quences,” he said. The event came off peacefully and power - fully, organizer Maggie Knopp believes. “It was really powerful,” she said. “The energy all around, and just being in that space with students, teachers and parents, was so empowering.” “The doors just kept flooding and flooding with students,” she said. At least two dozen local students and families headed two weeks later to Washing- ton, D.C., to take part in the national March for Our Lives. —Audrey Hackett Students from YSHS/McKinney partici - pated in another National School Walkout on Friday, April 20, 2018, on the 19th anni- versary of a mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. At 10 a.m., the students, estimated at about one-third of the student body, walked out of their classes, marched downtown and gathered in front of Jack- son Lytle & Lewis Funeral Home. Students stood atop a soap box with the words “We the People Demand Safe Schools” and read the names of those injured or killed by school shootings since April 20, 1999, intermixed with their own passionate speeches. As the students marched closer to the heart of downtown, they were met by enthusiastic honking from cars, which the students echoed with whooping and proudly raising their signs. Chants from the students rang out. “NRA, go away!” and “No more fear, volunteer!” In interviews with students, a major theme was wanting to feel safe in school and be able to further their education with - out fear of a school shooting. Alaina Hoff, a senior, said she was “tired of students’ lives being on the back burner to political issues.” But she was validated by the involvement of her peers. “I am proud of the students all fighting for a cause,” Hoff said. Eighth-grader Malaya Booth said she was, in part, protesting the National Rifle Associa - tion, which “protects the guns not the kids.” When asked if she feels safe at schools, she responded that while she feels mostly comfortable, the recent school shooting in Florida was so “devastating” that it has given her pause. “There is this little fear in your heart,” Booth said. “It could happen to anyone. It’s really scary.” Raine Galvin, a senior, said she walked out to send a message to a society that has become desensitized to mass shootings. “This shouldn’t be considered normal,” Galvin said. “And we want to put an end to it.” —Kayla Graham and Megan Bachman PROTESTING GUN VIOLENCE— YSHS students walk out PHOTO BY MEGAN BACHMAN YSHS/McKinney students chanted "No more fear!" during a walkout against gun violence in April 2018. Pictured are, from left, Mason Lindsey, JJ Bledsoe, Ellery Bledsoe and Mark Bricker (at rear).