Tears welled up in Gretchen Harrelson’s eyes as she watched 16-year-old Jenna Santana belt out an emotional rendition of “Rise Up” by Andra Day. A technology issue had caused Santana’s accompanying music to unexpectedly stop, but she continued on—singing acapella—despite the glaring musical halt.
The audience, mostly made up of Santana’s classmates and teachers, gave her performance a roaring applause. Even the students holding protest posters—most splashed with slogans in support of gun reform—ound a way to show Santana support.
“I’m so proud of you,” Harrelson, a social studies teacher at Pioneer Valley High School, said to Santana as they hugged offstage. The truth is, Harrelson was proud of all her students that day.
Santana’s performance was just a small part of a brief rally held at Pioneer Valley’s outdoor amphitheater on March 14, when hundreds of local students walked out of class at 10 a.m. to honor those killed a month earlier in a Parkland, Florida, school shooting. The walkout—which lasted 17 minutes, a minute for every life lost in the Parkland shooting—coincided with thousands of similar rallies at schools across the nation.
Harrelson said she was glad to see so many of her students respectfully making their voices heard.
“I’m supporting them in that,” she said.
Pioneer Valley’s walkout, unlike so many others around the nation, was not considered a protest by faculty and staff, according to Activity Director Lisa Watters. Staff wanted all students to feel welcomed at the rally, regardless of their political beliefs.
“We wanted to make it more of a memorial to those who lost their lives rather than a political statement,” Watters said.
Still, it was hard to ignore the handmade signs peppered throughout the audience. Laisa Ruiz, a senior at Pioneer Valley, held a poster that read, “How many tears, how much blood, will it take? Protect children, not guns.”
Ruiz, 18, said gun violence can only stop if lawmakers put increased restrictions on guns and gun owners. If teachers were armed, Ruiz said she would feel even less safe. Of course, not all of Ruiz’s classmates agree, and she said the rally was surprisingly respectful considering the controversy that often surrounds the topic of gun violence in schools.
“I thought there might be a fight,” Ruiz said after the event. “But it was really peaceful.”
Students planning to walkout at Ernest Righetti and St. Joseph high schools weren’t so lucky.
Both schools were on lockdown the morning of March 14, while law enforcement officials investigated an anonymous text to several students warning them of a weapon on campus, according to Kenny Klein, public information officer for the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District.
The text also allegedly threatened violence during the walkouts, according to a Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office press release. The threat was later found to be unrelated to the Santa Maria schools, according to the release, and instead referenced a gun threat made by a student at Atascadero High School. The Atascadero Police Department arrested the student, according to the release, and the lockdowns at St. Joseph and Righetti were lifted at about 11:25 a.m.
Nearly 150 of Righetti’s 2,300 students were pulled out of class by their parents after the lockdown, Klein said in a statement. A large group of other Righetti students, he said, rallied in the school’s amphitheater at lunch, despite the unexpected morning drama.
Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash writes School Scene each week. Information can be sent to the Sun via mail, fax, or email at mail@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 22-29, 2018.