On Wednesday, March 14th, students across the United States walked out of their classrooms to protest inaction on gun control and to stand with Parkland, Florida, a community tragically attacked by a school shooter last month.
Students across the country held powerful protests, despite warnings from schools that they would not be allowed back into class if they left school grounds. Some students were detained after school, others suspended - but they certainly got their message across.
A sign held by one student read, "I should be writing my college essay, not my will." Another sign read "Fix this, before I have to text my mom from under a desk."
Not all schools participated in the walk-out, though. Some schools had the bright idea to come up with what is now known as the 'Walk Up, Not Out' movement. Here's a brief summary of what that means.
I'm all for spreading kindness, but in this case, the 'Walk Up' thing is just... ridiculous.
Being 'nice' can't fix mental illness.
The individuals that choose to commit school shootings are mentally incapacitated long before their high school years. It is certain that these kids have been through abuse, trauma, neglect, or otherwise shitty parenting, and that has caused most of their turmoil. Not to blame the parents, but like... think about Adam Lanza, the Newtown, Connecticut shooter - what was the first thing he did when he obtained his weapon? That's right - he shot and killed his mother.
Take a developmental psychology course sometime, and you will see that no amount of kids being 'nice' at school will fix an entire lifetime of psychological damage, not to mention the genes that may have predisposed them to depression or other mental disorders.
These kids have been depressed long before they could even know what depression really is. Being kind to 'the kid who sits alone' is not going to magically fix that.
It's not about kids being bullied.
Here's another reason why 'Walk Up' is asinine. I, like so many others, was bullied and teased for a large portion of my school years - all throughout elementary and middle school. For being overweight, for having a big forehead, for my face being red, whatever. For years. And not ONE TIME did I think about shooting up my school. Bullying is a much larger cause of self-harm and suicide, not outward aggression and school violence.
Kids have been bullied since the dawn of time. Millions and millions of students are bullied, yet, there are not millions and millions of school shooters, are they?
Next.
Do you not think that those 'weird kids' can read?
Let me put you in a situation. You're a 14 year old kid and you sit alone every single day at lunch, and you have continued to sit alone every single day at lunch for years. Suddenly, a group of your classmates decide to sit with you at lunch one day. Exciting, right?
Then you go out in to the hallway, and see that 'Walk Up, Not Out' poster. Let me tell you what's going to go through the mind of a depressed kid. "They only sat with me for this one day, because the poster told them to," they'll think, "and they only sat with me because they think I might shoot up the school?"
Isolated kids are not so isolated that they won't notice the school event going on. If you were in that 14 year old kid's shoes, you are obviously going to know that people are only being nice to you because of the 'Walk Up' thing, because they think that you might bring a gun to school one day and kill them.
Tell me that that wouldn't make you depressed.
High school kids are not going to magically change their ways.
Children and teens have been teasing other children and teens for decades upon decades, if not centuries upon centuries. One day of 'walking up' and being nice to the 'lonely kids' is wonderful, except that it's literally only going to be one day. More than likely, they'll go right back to their normal ways tomorrow. That still doesn't mean that they should be shot.
And again, bullying alone isn't going to drive someone to murder their classmates.
No matter what causes somebody to shoot up their school, that is not the point of these protests.
The 'Walk Up, Not Out' movement is a classic example of PEOPLE JUST MISSING THE F*CKING POINT.
If a kid is mentally ill and bullied and wants to shoot up a school, the POINT is that he should not be able to just go get a gun and do it.
It should be impossible for him to get the weapon in the first place.
That is what the protests are about.
School shootings are a mental health problem and a gun problem.
If you think that kids being nice to each other will stop this, you're just as ignorant as you sound.
