Readers split on whether students should be able to protest during school

BY ERIKA NORTON
Student survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., have galvanized a national movement for gun law reform. The movement, which doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon, has also sparked a conversation about student activism.
On March 14, the one-month anniversary of the Parkland school shooting, students and some teachers and staff across the country, including the tri-state area, protested as part of National Walkout Day. Participants walked out of schools nationwide at 10 a.m. for 17 minutes, one minute for each life lost in the Parkland shooting.
According to a recent reader survey, Township Journal readers are split on whether they support students holding protests during school hours.
Survey resultsOut of the 539 survey-takers, 52 percent, said they think students should be able to hold protests during school hours, whether they are indoors or outdoors. Another 45.8 percent said no, they do not think students should hold protests during school hours.
A small percentage, 2.2 percent, said that they students should be able to hold protests during school hours, as long as they are indoors.
Readers of The Township Journal, as well as the other Straus Newspapers, the parent company of The Township Journal, also took the survey. These papers cover parts of Sussex County, West Milford in Passaic County, parts of Orange County, N.Y. and Pike County, Pa.
While readers were split on whether students should be able to protest during school, a majority of the survey-takers support the protesting students’ cause of calling attention to government inaction in response to gun violence, particularly in schools. Out of the 539 survey-takers, 61.8 percent said they support the students’ cause, while 38.2 percent said they do not support the students’ cause.
Looking at the entire survey, half of the survey-takers said they both support students holding protests during school hours and also support the students’ cause. About 35 percent of responders said they do not think students should hold protests during school hours and also do not support the students’ cause.
Some responders, 11 percent, said they do not think students should hold protests during school hours, but they do however support the students’ cause. A smaller percentage, 2.4 percent, said they think students should be able to hold protests during school hours, whether they are indoors or outdoors, but they do not support the students’ cause.
Up nextAnother national student walkout is planned for April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado in 1999.
Hundreds of town halls focused on gun law reform are also planned across the country throughout the next several weeks.