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Local
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Walkouts
STACY GITTLEMAN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
TOP: About 300 students gathered in the
courtyard at Berkley High School during
the walkout March 14 in solidarity
with Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
School in Parkland, Fla. BOTTOM: While
traveling in South Florida, Detroiter Hy
Safran visited the high school where
this memorial honors the 17 people
murdered Feb. 14
during the shooting.
I
t could have been them.
One month after a gunman killed 17 at a high school in
Parkland, Fla., thousands of students here and across the country
on March 14 kept this sentiment in mind and walked out of their
classrooms for 17-minute demonstrations when the clock struck 10.
They recited the names of the murdered and vowed to keep up
their activism by contacting their state and local representatives for
common-sense gun control legislation and participating in “March
for Our Lives” demonstrations on March 24. Students turning 18 this
year also said they would register to vote and would encourage their
peers to do the same ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Some Jewish students in Metro Detroit were inspired to partici-
pate because of their family’s close association to shooting victim
Alex Schachter, 14.
Hillel Day School sixth-grader Ethan Endelman was supposed
to attend camp this summer with Schachter. His mother, Alyssa
Endelman, said though the two boys had never met, Schachter’s
death had a huge impact on Ethan, who, with other middle schoolers
at Hillel, planned and participated in a walkout.
“Hillel has been doing a great job of teaching the students about
activism,” Endelman said. “This has impacted my son emotionally
and has made him genuinely interested in gun control and mental
health issues. Also, with Parkland’s large Jewish community, it hits us
even closer to home. It truly could have been any of us or any of our
friends’ children.”
In another local connection to Schachter, Ben Cohon, 14, a fresh-
man at Walled Lake Northern High School, talked about how his dad
Rob, 47, has been friends with Schachter’s father since they met in
high school on a trip to Israel.
Cohon helped organize his school’s walkout. Since the shooting, he
said the students have had full support from teachers and adminis-
trators with their walkout plans.
“The mood at school has been somber, and a lot more people are
aware of the consequences of bad people getting guns,” Cohon said a
few days ahead of the walkout. He will also head to Washington, D.C.,
with students from Temple Israel. “There are some kids at school
who think this walkout is about having all of their gun rights taken
away, but the walkout is in memory of those who were killed and a
call for better security in our schools and raising the age of legal gun
ownership from 18 to 21.”
IN BLOOMFIELD HILLS
Approximately 500 students at Bloomfield Hills High School, with the
district’s administrators and faculty’s support, gathered in the cam-
pus’ interior courtyard to read the names of the slain, give speeches
for unity and calls for action to spread the word about tighter gun
control and urge voter registration for students turning 18.
Among the Jewish students who helped organize the walk-
out were Simon Abohasira and Lexie Finkelstein, both 15 from
Bloomfield Hills.
Abohasira said despite their young age, the student movement is
already having an impact, citing decisions from retailers such as Wal-
Mart ending any sales of guns or ammunition to those under 21 and
Dicks Sporting Goods halting its sales of the AR-15. The sophomore
plans to continue his activism by going to the march in Washington,
HY SAFRAN
Students honor
Parkland victims
and advocate
for gun control
changes.
D.C.
According to Abohasira, another important component of the
movement is voter registration. When this generation of students
turns 18, they can truly make a change in legislation about univer-
sal background checks and banning gun accessories such as bump
stocks.
“We want to protect lives, not guns,” Abohasira said. “We do not
want to make this a partisan issue, and we are not saying that all
guns should be banned, but you don’t need (assault rifles) to go
hunting.”
Finkelstein has been active in selling orange T-shirts bearing the
names of the 17 victims. Monies raised will go to offset the costs of
a bus for students to travel to Washington, D.C., and will also go to
funds set up for the victims of the shooting.
“I was inspired and astounded by the students at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School who worked so hard to have their
voices heard,” Finkelstein said.
She added it was a student decision to have the walkout away
from the public eye because of security threats. There was a heavy
police presence at the school, and no parents or media were allowed
to attend the demonstration. Though hundreds of students stayed
home, Finkelstein said many lent support by purchasing T-shirts.
In addition to organizing an additional walkout on April 20 — the
anniversary of the Columbine mass shooting — and the planned trip
to the nation’s capital, Finkelstein said walkout participants were also
given information to call their state representatives to oppose legisla-
continued on page 18
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March 22 • 2018
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