Hundreds gathered at this Manatee school for demonstration on gun violence

High school students at Manatee School for the Arts, along with students across the country, have been eager to make their voices heard on the recently ignited gun violence debate.

And from 2:30 p.m. until a little after 3 p.m. Wednesday, during the students’ scheduled “brain break,” they went out to the school’s courtyard and did just that.

More than 300 gathered around the school’s outdoor stage as several students delivered emotional speeches about gun violence and school safety.

“I’m 18, how can I not be allowed to buy a case of beer but I can buy a weapon that can kill people in seconds?” student Eliza Lipton said. “If you can’t trust us with alcohol, how can you trust us with guns? It doesn’t make any sense at all.”

The national gun control conversation has sprung back into the spotlight in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting that left 17 people dead on Valentine’s Day.

Parents, students, teachers and school staffs in Manatee County and across the country have been on edge since the mass shooting, and in the last two weeks alone, several Manatee County schools have received copycat threats that resulted in multiple lockdowns.

At Manatee School for the Arts, an unfounded threat was written on a bathroom wall Friday. And on Tuesday, a drawing of a pistol was found etched into a picnic table.

Palmetto Police Chief Scott Tyler said both are not considered credible threats and appear to be attention-seeking behavior.

“Our detectives are following up on who did it (Tuesday) afternoon,” Tyler said. “But, again, I don’t consider it a credible threat ... and we take every one of them seriously, but at this point we’re hoping kids would be a little more responsible. This is attention-seeking behavior.”

The chief did say that if detectives are able to identify the person behind the drawing, they will be charged with criminal mischief.

Principal Bill Jones also said the doodle was not serious.

“It was a bad choice of subject matter, particularly at this time,” Jones said. “And we are trying to not stir the pot. I don’t want to call everything and anything that happens a threat.”

Students at the school initially planned Wednesday’s event to be a walkout through the website actionnetwork.org.

“Please join us in the MSA school walkout,” the event page read, “meant to protest Congress’ inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods.”

Though initially called a walkout, the event turned out to be an organized demonstration in the courtyard after members of the administration said they came in to help the students express themselves, but safely and without disrupting the school day.

“It was not a walk out, it was a well-organized event,” Jones said. “Students came out to the normal everyday ‘brain break’ and this time they had a chance to get out and express their feelings on everything that’s going on right now. Free speech is one thing and disruption is another, and they were interested in getting out their feelings and not disrupting the school.”

Ninth-grader Juan Alvarez, 14, made and handed out the fliers for the event and also wrote and delivered a speech during the event.

“We couldn’t really sit here and not do something,” Alvarez said. “I feel like there wasn’t really a choice for me not to do something.”

Overall, student organizers said they were pleased with the turnout and thankful to everyone who participated.

“I’m so glad. It turned out way better than I thought,” said 14-year-old Katherine Hughes. “I was worried that nobody would care ... we are so happy that we got more people.”

▪ A national school walkout, sponsored by the Women’s March Network, is planned for 10 a.m. on March 14 and is set to last 17 minutes to represent the 17 victims who died in the Parkland shooting.

On the event’s official page, Manatee High School and Manatee School for the Arts are listed to take part in the event, as is the State College of Florida Collegiate School.

This story was originally published February 28, 2018 at 7:26 PM with the headline "Hundreds gathered at this Manatee school for demonstration on gun violence."