Students at J.S. Jenks Academy of ARts and Sciences lead a demonstration to protest the nation's gun laws on Wednesday morning, March 14. (Photo by Eva Dorcus)

by Brendan Sample

In response to the tragic shooting at Parkland High School last month, schools across the country took part in a walkout on Wednesday, March 14 to protest gun violence. The J.S. Jenks Academy for the Arts and Sciences was one of the schools that participated in a 17-minute walkout to honor the 17 victims of the Parkland shooting.

While the movement itself sent a powerful message along Germantown Avenue, it is only the beginning for the participating Jenks students in their efforts to make their community, and the world, a better place.

At 10 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Jenks students and teachers poured out on both sides of the street in front of the school, each standing in one spot for 17 minutes. Some participants held up posters showing the number 17, while other students had photos of each of the Parkland victims. Other than the cars driving by on Germantown, many of which honked in support as they passed, the block was quiet. The weather outside may have been freezing, but the students stayed in place resolutely until it was time to go back inside.

Spearheaded by a group of nine eighth graders, the walkout represented the start of a new initiative from Jenks called “What’s Your 17?” Keeping in line with the theme of 17, it will focus on coming up with 17 different actions that Jenks students can take to improve their lives and the lives around them, and ensuring that they follow through in the months to come.  Some of the actions suggested so far include continued work to help fix gun laws, picking up trash in the community and just talking to 17 people they don’t know.

Two weeks ago, Jenks 8th graders Jah-lore Duquesne, Jamaine Harrison, Hanif Rice, Zyaire Borges, Iseem Harris, Saud Salahuddin, Zamir Beck, Kaleb Deadrick and Zakhiir Jackson all got together to begin planning the walkout. Ironically enough, the discussion began right after they all got in trouble for throwing snowballs, which led to an accidental broken window.

“It’s crazy how this all evolved,” Salahuddin said. “None of our teachers would’ve picked us as the ones to start all this, but it was Principal Lynskey that really saw something in us.”

Indeed, it took getting called into the principal’s office to inspire this group of students to take action and do something for their school and community. For Lynskey, this movement means so much more to her and the school that it was organized by a group of students instead of faculty or staff.

“This is difficult to talk about, because I’m on the verge of tears,” said Lynskey after the walkout. “I’m so unbelievably proud of all of them … You can look at these students and see them as just kids, but they’re so much more than that. Their hearts are golden.”

In addition to finding ways to follow through on the suggestions they received from the student body, of which there have been far more than 17, the students are also planning another march for April. While it still has to be planned out, it will also be in connection to gun violence.

Even looking beyond their time at Jenks, they all plan to continue keeping up with “What’s Your 17” in high school. Though they may be attending different schools after Jenks, they are all still friends who live in the Mt. Airy region, which they hope will make it easier to keep this initiative going. Besides the added benefit of gaining community service hours, they simply want to ensure that this movement does not stop just because they are no longer students at Jenks.

“We needed to find a way to focus this channel of energy we have, and we ultimately wanted to find something positive to do with it,” Salahuddin said. “We still have a bit of a ‘reputation,’ but we know we’re not bad kids … Once we went out and did something, it felt really good, and we feel like we’ve really left a mark on the school.”