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Local Schools Join "National School Walkout" On Columbine Anniversary

Jerry Kenney
/
WYSO

Oakwood and Fairmont High Schools held a joint rally this morning at Fraze Pavillion. The rally was one of hundreds taking place across the country as part of a “National School Walkout” movement. The purpose of the rally was to call attention to school shootings and call for stricter gun laws.

Meigan Karolak is fifteen and a sophomore at Fairmont. She’s one of the co-organizers of the rally. 

Credit Jerry Kenney
Sammy Caruso (left) and Meigan Karolak co-organized the local walkout.

“It was certainly a process, but the school was very accommodating," she said. "They let us leave without consequences but we worked with the city, we worked with a lot of people who were just helping us.”

Sixteen year old Sophomore, Sammy Caruso, also helped organize the walkout for Oakwood students. In addition to stricter gun laws, he says the rally was a call for continued political action.

“It’s been a main point of our walkout today is we want students to volunteer for campaigns to get involved in the political system and to keep the movement going."

Caruso says there were “a decent amount of students from both schools who did not participate in the walkout and stayed in school, however a handful of students did join the rally, but in protest

Gradon Weimer, a seventeen year old Fairmont student, was one of five students that counter-protested the call for harsher gun laws.

Credit Jerry Kenney
Gradon Weimer (left) says several teachers have given him odd looks of his black sweatshirt that reads "Ban idiots-not guns" but says for the most part, students with differing viewpoints at school have been respectful to each other.

“The Florida Shooting, the kid had a mental health problem," said Weimer. "Nobody did anything and he shot 17 students, and I believe the the problem is not the guns. People who have mental health problems are the problem.”

Today’s “National School Walkout” was a response to that Parkland, Florida school Shooting and was also chosen to commemorate the April 20th, 1999 Columbine High School shooting.

Several local officials, including Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, joined students and faculty for the rally.

 

Jerry began volunteering at WYSO in 1991 and hosting Sunday night's Alpha Rhythms in 1992. He joined the YSO staff in 2007 as Morning Edition Host, then All Things Considered. He's hosted Sunday morning's WYSO Weekend since 2008 and produced several radio dramas and specials . In 2009 Jerry received the Best Feature award from Public Radio News Directors Inc., and was named the 2023 winner of the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors Best Anchor/News Host award. His current, heart-felt projects include the occasional series Bulletin Board Diaries, which focuses on local, old-school advertisers and small business owners. He has also returned as the co-host Alpha Rhythms.