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Montana Students Plan Another School Walkout Against Gun Violence

Hellgate High student Mollie, one of the organizers of that school's walkout over gun violence, talks to a reporter after observing a moment of silence for the Parkland shooting victims, March 14, 2018, in Missoula.
Josh Burnham

The national website coordinating school walkouts Friday to demonstrate against gun violence shows four events in Montana. They’ll be held in Helena, Butte, Bozeman and Missoula.

Friday is the 19th anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, where 15 people died.

Molly Gibbons, a senior at Hellgate High is helping to organize the Missoula event. She helped organize a similar demonstration on March 14. While most events across the country are happening at 10 a.m., the one in Missoula will run from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Interviewed between classes in Hellgate’s courtyard, Gibbons said that since Friday is a conference day and there are no classes for grades 9-12 in Missoula County Public Schools, there’s less emphasis on the event she’s helping organize being a “walkout.”

“I think it’s still important, but it’s not the main focus. That’s why we kind of had it after school, too. So then students who can’t walk out can still come and participate, and then also people who, like adults who are at work can still come after work. Because we really want to make it a community-wide event. But we also wanted to put part of it during the school day, so that people who do feel empowered to walk out can still do that, but it’s not, like, the main component,” Gibbons said.

Gibbons said the event will start and end with students speaking to attendees, with local musicians performing in between, and a community art project run by younger students. There will also be stations where people can write letters to elected representatives, and voter registration.

Gibbons said she feels like there’s still momentum behind students nationwide who want their events to effect real change. And, she said, local student activists are looking beyond Friday’s event to keep that going.

“Within the Hellgate group, we’re trying to spread it to the other schools — a little “ambassador” program that we’re calling it. So we have students from each of the grade levels in the groups, and they can continue protesting, and writing letters and things like that next year. So I really hope that the momentum continues, because it’s a really important issue that we need to keep talking about,” Gibbons said.

Gibbons says she’ll feel like Friday afternoon’s event is a success if people come, both students and members of the community showing they’re still supporting the kids. The Missoula National School Walkout event starts at the Xs sculpture at the north end of Higgins Avenue.

More details on the event can be found on the Fight for Missoula Lives facebook page

Eric Whitney is NPR's Mountain West/Great Plains Bureau Chief, and was the former news director for Montana Public Radio.
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