By Lauren Nguyen, Staff Writer
Over the past weeks, parents and educators all over the nation have united in supporting the #WalkUpNotOut movement as a more effective alternative to the plans for student walkouts and marches. Pushed by many who believe that student walkouts will not change much, supporters believe that there would be a greater effect if students dealt with the root of the problem by acting kindly towards their peers and teachers.
The movement urged students to do 14 acts of kindness towards their fellow students and three towards the staff members at their school on Mar. 14 instead of walking out to show solidarity and to remember the 14 students and three staff members killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The idea initially emerged as a suggestion for students to be more benevolent to others, but has since amplified into a national movement that credits mental health as the bigger reason for the recent school shootings. It arose in response to studies that showed students who are socially shut off, have problems at home or suffer in their school environment are more likely to participate in these events/situations.
As like any other, the movement has received mixed responses, some praising the movement for effectively taking action, while others calling it unrealistic. Its opposers accuse it of ignoring the other factors that played into an individual committing the crime and in a sense, making innocent students feel as if they are at fault for another person’s actions.
The idea originated from sixth-grade teacher Jodie Katsetos’ classroom in Oak Hall, VA when she posted a sign encouraging her students to “walk up to the kid who sits alone and ask them to be in your group,” “walk up to the kid who never has a voluntary partner and offer to be hers,” “walk up to your teachers and thank them” and “walk up to someone and just be nice,” according to ABC News.
Wherever your opinions stand in regards to school shootings and massacres, it is a common ground for most that students should always be encouraged to act upon kindness, not only in the times of fear.
The myth that school shooters are outcasts fighting back against bullies dates back to Columbine. At the time it was widely reported that Harris and Klebold were social rejects, and much was made of the meanness of popular kids. But the FBI concluded that Harris was a full-on psychopath, and that kids didn’t like the boys because they did creepy things like walking around giving the Nazi salute. Even so, a few days before the attack Klebold took a date to the prom, crammed into a limo with a dozen friends. Still the myth persists.
“Walk Up, Not Out” is a campaign of cowardice, promoted by adults who want there to be a solution to school shootings that asks literally nothing of us. No tough choices, no exercise of political will, no speaking out to power – just lecturing kids on how to do better. We’re good at that.
It’s also worth noting that only certain kids are privileged by this narrative. You’ve never seen moralizing Facebook posts arguing that if only the popular girls would sit down next to that Latino kid in the cafeteria, he wouldn’t join MS-13. No. This argument only applies to crimes overwhelmingly committed by white boys. Their crimes are tragic betrayals of an underlying innocence that is never attributed to black boys selling drugs on the corner.
– Rebecca Wald