On March 14, exactly one month after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, students at Cresskill High School lead and participated in the National Walk Out. Led by five seniors, Olivia Sher, Sam Higgins, Pooja Balar, Sarah Green, and Stephanie Perez, a large part of the Cresskill High School student body came together on the school’s tennis courts to commemorate the shooting victims and discuss the need for gun control regulations.

From 10 to 10:30 in the morning, the students were allowed to leave their classes and come together for this student-run event. Since there was concern that this might be misconstrued as students ‘ditching class’ if they simply walked out of the building, which would have resulted in disciplinary action taken against them, it was important for the school’s administration to be fully on board.

Olivia Sher explains, “The administration was very supportive from the get-go. … We had meetings once a week and they were really supportive of us and we were able to really collaborate. They were really willing to work with us and let this be our event and I think that was really great.”

Many other teachers and students got involved on this walkout as well, with poster-making sessions being held in English teacher Mrs. Krapels’ classroom during lunch, students fundraising by selling lollipops and pins outside of the cafeteria, the Broadcast Journalism and Digital Cinematography classes reporting on the event, as well as several other students getting involved.

Because this walk out revolved around the controversial issue of gun control, prior to the event, the student organizers were unsure how many people would be in attendance. The turn out however, blew them away. “It doesn’t really feel real because it went so well and so many people came out that I was like ‘Oh I’m dreaming, it hasn’t actually happened yet’ because this has been the last month of my life,” recalls Sher.

However unsure they were about their attendance prior to the event, it is fair to say that the nearly 200 students in the crowd were emotionally touched by the stories shared during some of the speeches and the unity that was demonstrated.

Junior Sophia Cumella was in attendance and shares, “The speeches given were also very powerful and meaningful, which was something that probably took a lot of courage from the people giving them and I give a lot of credit to them for the way that they showed their passion and resilience on such a tricky situation and devastating situation that we all have to deal with as a school and as a country.”

Statistics from previous school shootings and calls to action were discussed in these speeches, and it could be noted that throughout the crowd you could see many watery eyes as Pooja Balar shared her personal experience of her mother having a shooting in her workplace and its effect on her.

Although this was the first time any students have led an event of this magnitude at Cresskill High School, its success in uniting the student body over an important cause and paying homage to the students and faculty who lost their lives in the Parkland Shooting will hopefully carry this passion into other events in the future and continue to inspire students to stand up for what they think is right.