Walk Out vs Walk Up

On Wednesday, March 14, thousands of (mostly) high school students around the country walked out of their classes for 17 minutes to remember the 17 faculty and students killed one month earlier at a high school in Parkland, Florida.  The walk out was, in part, a protest of the gun violence that plagues this country, especially in the form of mass shootings.

Many around the country supported this action, including many school districts.  Schools from east to west, north to south, even participated with their students, making sure that they had safe gathering places.

Nevertheless, the action was not without controversy.  Many school districts threatened students with detention or suspension if they dared to walk out.  Student organizers received harsh criticism in the press and on social media, and some even received threats.

But one of the most insidious attacks on the Walk Out came in the form of a counter-campaign.  All over social media, you could see statements of "Walk UP, not OUT."

The Walk Up campaign, offered as a supposedly more positive alternative to the Walk Out, argued that it is better to walk up to students who are marginalized, and offer them statements of inclusion, of positive reinforcement.

That sounds good, doesn't it?

And in and of itself, it is good.

But in this context, it is worse than useless.  It is misleading and harmful.  Here's why.

The Walk Up campaign (it's not even a movement) makes a couple of dangerous assumptions.
First, it assumes that mass shootings are caused by students who have been bullied or otherwise marginalized.  This may be true in some cases, but it simply is not true in all or even most.  Bullied kids are not more likely to shoot up their schools.  So the Walk Up campaign will do nothing to stop the problem at issue - mass shootings.

Moreover, telling kids to just be nicer to each other puts the blame for the shootings on the kids.  "If only you hadn't been so mean, you wouldn't have gotten shot."  This is the classic victim blaming.  It's akin to a rape victim being blamed for wearing alluring clothing.

Second, the Walk Up campaign assumes that kids have not been practicing the Walk Up method all along.  In the last decade, I have observed a tremendous change in how bullying is dealt with in schools (yes, I am talking about public schools here, and I have had the privilege to be in the schools in a variety of capacities over the past fifteen years).   Anti-bullying training teaches kids how to spot kids who are left out, and how to include them.  This is essential what Walk Up says has not been happening.

The problem, of course, is that the improved treatment of the marginalized - and it IS much better - has not stopped mass shootings.  It has made life better for many, but it has not stopped the shootings because they are different problems.

At its worst, what the Walk Up campaign really is is a plot to discredit the Walk Out campaign, thereby blunting its effect.  It is a way of distracting from the real issue which is the ready availability of increasingly lethal weapons.

Critics have said that the Walk Out is addressing a non problem because gun violence has been going down in the US.

It has.  Even ultra-liberal documentarian Michael Moore said this (before anyone else) years ago.
But it isn't going down very much.  And mass shootings - which the Walk Out was addressing - are on the rise.

The United States is still the leader when it comes to number of deaths by gun among the wealthiest countries.  When you count the number in the tens of thousands, there is something terribly wrong.
Yet many in America - like the sponsors of the Walk Up campaign - continue to say we don't have a gun problem.  That we shouldn't have gun regulation.  That assault-style weapons are not a problem and that it's just whiny liberal snowflakes who know nothing about guns who complain.

Well, we do have a problem, and as a Christian, I can not stand idle and watch fear and threats of violence (not to mention violence itself) go unanswered.  As a Christian, I must approach such violence with non-violence, hatred and fear with love and trust in God (not in Smith & Wesson).
So, on Wednesday when the students walked out, I joined pastors across the country and tolled our church bells 17 times to remember the victims not only of Parkland but of all gun violence.  I suppose, in a sense, I did walk up, since I had to climb the stairs of the bell tower.  But make no mistake, my walk up was in full support of the Walk Out.