Behind the 4/20 Walkout

Students will be walking out this Friday, April 20, at the beginning of their fifth period classes and making their way as a group to Washington Square Park to attend a citywide rally organized and led by students in favor of gun control legislation. Or, that’s the plan, at least.

At the head of this demonstration is the organization Stuy Says ENOUGH! (SSE), who readers may remember from their role in the March 14 walkout. Their group has merged with the citywide movement NYC Says ENOUGH!, the group organizing the Washington Square rally this Friday.

Leading SSE are sophomores Grace Goldstein and Morgan Eve, whose involvement with this movement has garnered them niche recognition within the student body. Grace and Morgan met me in the English office to talk, Grace in her oil-painting-printed Doc Martens, and Morgan sporting her signature high ponytail and a Neon! Orange! sweatshirt with the NYC Says ENOUGH! logo on the front. They were hard to miss. We moved into the hallway to talk.

SW: What inspired both of you guys to get involved and get organized?

ME: Seeing all of the televised reports of the shootings was a call to action, and after Emma’s speech there were a lot of people who were really inspired. I was thinking specifically about my little brother, because he’s 12 and he’s in middle school, but he shouldn’t have to grow up in a world where he doesn’t feel safe at school. I sent Grace a long text about it. That was really what inspired me to create this, feeling like I needed to create a safer world for my little brother. I feel like it’s my job as an older sibling to protect him and to make him feel safe.

GG: I felt kind of voiceless for a long time, hearing about all these mass shootings and school shootings and combinations thereof. It gets frustrating over time because you have to sort of desensitize yourself to it, because if you experience the full heartbreak every time all these people die, unfortunately in this country that would be too much to handle. It’s just unbelievable what’s happening, and it felt like you wanted to do something about it, but you just didn’t know how. And thoughts and prayers, you knew they weren’t enough, but they seemed to be the only option. Then, all of a sudden there was this walkout. There was this announcement from the women’s march, and a tweet about the April 20 one, which is the one we’re now planning, and we just thought…okay, students across the country are mobilizing, how do we bring Stuy into this? This is an opportunity to do something that will actually have an impact, or take part in the thing that will have an impact, so I have to make sure that Stuy is involved. I was kind of expecting someone else to be leading it. I was expecting there to be an upperclassman or something, so I sort of went looking for that, and then Morgan started texting a group chat we were both in about it, and then two of our other friends who are also very into it sort of became the vice presidents of our little organization. And that was really where this started. I was waiting to hear about somebody else at Stuy who was doing the same thing, who we would kind of fall behind, but it ended up being like… just us.

SW: Did you feel intimidated getting involved with this as an underclassman?

GG: Well, yeah, I mean we got a lot of… At first I was just a little apprehensive, but we didn’t really get anyone mad about it so I thought, “Okay, I guess this is going to work.”

SW: How did the planning of this walkout change from the planning of the original?

ME: We knew we were going to have to involve the administration much less, to an extent, because for the first one we were really focused on getting…not the official support, because they legally can’t officially support us, but getting the help that we did with security guards marking the way to go and people in shirts. And with this one we’ve spoken to the administration, but only to a certain point, and it was more just to inform them of what we were doing rather than to ask for help or assistance.

GG: Right, I mean last time we were kind of testing the waters. We got a lot of complaints, like “You’re not doing enough, you didn’t get a permit, you didn’t do this, you didn’t do that,” when really, we didn’t want to go as far, because we knew April 20 was coming, and it was going to be bigger, and we already had ideas about this and were in contact with people, some people who would eventually grow into NYC Says ENOUGH!, which is what we’re representing right now. So we just wanted to do something to show we’re here, get some press involved, establish who’s involved in this, and so on, and get people really excited about it. Now, on April 20, we’re definitely going a lot further, and it’s more student-organized. Students are contacting politicians and activists, students are getting permits, we’re raising money. Basically, it’s just all students, mainly juniors and underclassmen, and we’re not at all involving local government or school administration as much, because it just doesn’t feel as necessary. We don’t want to ask for permission at this point.

SW: So what is the plan for April 20?

GG: For Stuyvesant specifically? What time is it, is it end of fifth period?

ME: Beginning.

GG: Okay good, ‘cause that’s what I announced to Grossman’s English class. So I’m glad I’m right. Beginning of fifth period, that’s when the walkout happens. It’s not going to be as much about the walking out element as last time, even though that is part of it, it’s more about the rally itself, which will extend until around four?

ME: I thought the program was until 3:30, or 2:30. Something like that.

GG: You know, it’s very in flux, because we’re flying people in the night before, who knows, honestly. They said until the time that a normal school day ends, and I bet it’ll last longer. The rally. At Washington Square. The walkout element is a little more subtle this time, because that’s not the focus. The focus is the rally, while the March 14 one was more about the walking out. So people who are participating from Stuyvesant, at the beginning of fourth period—

ME: Fifth period.

GG: Fifth period, I’m sorry, should go to the first floor, and look for, not Morgan and I, because we’re going to be setting up in Washington Square, but a team of people from Stuy Says ENOUGH!.

ME: Wearing bright orange clothing.

GG: They will be wearing bright orange clothing, some of them will have sweatshirts like the one Morgan’s wearing, and they’re basically going to lead people. We’re swiping out like last time because that’s just a necessary thing. And we’re going to walk to Washington Square, and we should arrive there at around 12 o’clock for the rally. And when we get there there will be a lot of other schools. Every school has individually worked out their own plan to get there. Bronx Science, for example, they aren’t even going to school, because it just wouldn’t be possible for them to get all the way to Washington Square on time.

ME: And LaGuardia’s posted their train schedules everywhere.

GG: LaGuardia and Beacon have posted their train schedules.

ME: Keep a lookout for the Google map that we’re gonna be posting, because although we will have leaders, we’re expecting more kids than will be able to see the leaders at all times.

GG: We’re getting a good-sized group of leaders. You’ll just like follow the person in front of you and if you have questions that's the person you would go to. So that’s the plan.

SW: How are you going to signify the leaders?

ME: Bright orange sweaters and something…tall.

GG: We’re also going to announce them. We kind of assembled the group… last night, so like tonight and tomorrow on Facebook and general social media, we’re going to be pushing “these are who the people are, some of them are already making Facebook groups,” just making it clear through our Facebook groups and our platforms who they are so that as many people as possible know in advance and they can tell their friends.

SW: How are you publicizing the event so that people know exactly what to do on the day of?

GG: Just typical social media. Facebook, Instagram, like Morgan said, Google map, and then we have fliers. We handed them out this morning, but they’re for NYC Says ENOUGH!, so they are not specific to Stuy. Tomorrow and the next day, we’re going to have ones with Stuy-specific directions. We’re handing them out on the bridge and as we go about our school days. Rebecca stays until second, we can stay until first period.

SW: Is there anything else you’re doing to publicize not on Facebook?

ME: Definitely word of mouth. Everyone I’ve spoken to or handed a flier to I was like, “Please Tell Your Friends!” We also posted fliers all over the school today, during third period, and we’re getting more in color, God willing, up tomorrow, and we’ll have more fliers to be handed out.

GG: We can’t encourage this enough though, check the Facebook group.

ME: Stuy Says ENOUGH!. We’ll reshare it in every group.

GG: If you go to the Facebook group we can guarantee you will get the information you need, and if you have any questions, they can be answered there. So the best thing you can do for yourself if you want to participate is go to the Facebook group, check for answers there, never be afraid of a dumb question, because we just want people to be as informed as possible.

ME: And feel free to message any of the leaders, who you’ll see tagged in most of the Facebook posts.

SW: Why should Stuy students participate?

GG: I think that this is going to be a really historic moment. We have a lot of incredible people who are going to be speaking, including some of our fellow student organizers, who have been such a pleasure to work with. We have survivors from Columbine, Orlando… At the last NYC Says ENOUGH! meeting, Ariel, who is one of the co-organizers, read this 10-minute speech that a Pulse survivor wrote, and we were all just in tears. It was the most captivating thing. And I think it’s going to be an incredible moment. All these students coming together to hear these speeches, to chant and rally. We’ll have LaGuardia kids performing this song that Parkland survivors wrote that they performed at the March for Our Lives. I think that if you come you’ll remember it for the rest of your life, you’ll be glad you were there, that you had a part. I think it will be very empowering.

ME: It’s going to be something, I know it’ll be something that you’ll never forget. It’s going to be one of the biggest movements of this time, and it’s completely student-led, and being able to say that you were a part of it is going to mean a lot. It’s going to motivate you to get involved with other things, too, and it’ll be a good start, if you’re not involved already.

SW: For students who are concerned about their school record, or about their parents, what can you say?

GG: If your parents tell you that you can’t go and you feel like you might be making yourself unsafe in your home by going, then there's nothing we can do about that, and we respect that. So what we would suggest is get involved in other ways. We’re considering the die-in option, which is another way of protesting inside your school. We’re going to post the die-in toolkit tonight, because we have that.

SW: What’s a die-in?

GG: People at school basically lie down and pretend to be dead.

ME: In the hallways. Together, organized.

GG: So if we could get something like that together in these next few days, that would be an option for people who are for some reason unable to leave. A friend who isn’t able to come because of her parents actually helped hand out fliers this morning. If you’re supportive, there are other ways to get involved, and to look back and think “I was involved,” and that’s just as good as being there on the day.

ME: Also, if you’re super concerned about your school records, there is the early release form. We don’t exactly recommend it, because obviously we’re getting the complaint that “this is supposed to be a demonstration and now you’re signing out to leave school early,” but if you really want to participate and you’re concerned about your school record or your parents think that this is a better option, we’ve linked the early release forms in the Facebook groups and we’ll make it more public on posters and such. And that’s definitely one way to go.

SW: Is there anything else you want to say?

ME: We hope you come out to support us, because we’re both really passionate about this. We’ve spent a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of mornings running on coffee to get here. With the support that we saw at the March 14 walkout, we’re really hoping to get something similar to that for this walkout. We know it’s going to be hard, but we appreciate all the support that we’ve gotten so far, and thank you for your questions, and for everything.