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Step-by-step how to walkout guide from The Harry Potter Alliance
Talk to your advisor about your desire to organize a school-wide walkout for gun control. If you are at an elementary, middle, or high school, your advisor may be able to bring this idea to your administration on your behalf, or may encourage you to speak to them directly. Ensure that you explain the educational and civic benefits for gun control at your school participating in this kind of demonstration
You may want to utilize a fact sheet from one of these sources:
- Everytown for Gun Safety
- Gifford's Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
- Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
- American Public Health Association
If you are at a university it may not be necessary to get administrative permission, but you will want to ensure you are following campus rules. consider speaking to your Student Government, campus security, and/or a staff advisor to be sure.
Once you have reached a mutual agreement with your school administrators and checked campus rules, decide on a date and time for your walk out. Existing movements you can join can be found on the Youth in Front upcoming protests page
If the dates of the National School Walkouts do not work for your school, coordinating a walkout to protest gun violence at another time is okay too! Just keep in mind that actions are most powerful when they are clearly connected to a larger cause or movement - so be sure to link your action to the national student movement.
Remember that the goal is to show your teachers and peers how you feel about gun control legislation and the gun violence plaguing our schools and communities across the country - make sure that participants are calm, respectful, and have clear guidelines for when the walk out begins, where you will be gathering, and when you will return to class. If you anticipate that a large number of students will be participating, you may want to notify campus security of the event.
Let the students of your school know! The more people who participate, the more striking the action will be.
Distribute fact sheets to teachers to explain the project to remaining students. You may want to have fact sheets on hand if you will be walking out to a more public area (i.e. campus commons), or consider making signs to hold so that onlookers will know why you are walking out.
There's a lot of power in documentation and sharing of these kinds of events. Make sure you take pictures and share them out with #NationalSchoolWalkout. You can also tag @theHPAlliance, and please share them with your liaison if you're a chapter!
If your administrators would like to speak to an HPA staff member, please have them contact Janae Phillips, Director of Leadership and Education, at [email protected] or 520-477-1472.
Tweet The HPA @theHPAlliance or email [email protected] and let them know what you're planning, they would love to help you publicize.
If you are in an HPA chapter, let your liaison (or [email protected] if you do not know your liaison) know.
If you would like, HPA staff can assist you in writing a press release for local media outlets.
The HPA recommends you also share on your own social media, either through simple personal postings or something like a Facebook event. You want your community to know it's happening!