Student walkouts expected at Great Neck North and South High

Janelle Clausen
Great Neck North High School is seen on a warmer fall day. (Photo by Janelle Clausen)
Great Neck North High School is seen on a warmer fall day. (Photo by Janelle Clausen)

When Adi Sragovich, a senior at Great Neck North High School, saw students her own age on the news protesting and confronting officials for gun reform following a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, she said she knew she wanted to do something.

“It really invigorated me. I feel like my generation is finally coming into its moment,” Sragovich, who is organizing a student walkout at North High, said on Thursday. “Unfortunately, that power comes from the fact we’re the ones being hunted and killed.”

“The only upside to that is that we get a voice,” she said.

The North High walkout is one of two walkouts planned for Wednesday, March 14, at 10 a.m. in the Great Neck school district, the other being at South High School, as well as several nationwide pushing for gun reform legislation and to remember those who were killed in Florida.

The walkouts will take place exactly one month after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a 19-year-old ex-student shot and killed 17 students and injured more than a dozen more on Valentine’s Day.

Students will be walking out of class onto the front lawn of the school for 17 minutes in a memorial, or one minute for each life lost at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, the North High walkout’s Facebook page says.

There will also be voter registration forms for students turning 18 by Election Day.

Sragovich said there are about 160 RSVPs on the page, but that she expects people will be with their friends, which could make the turnout even higher.

“I think that the majority of the students are in support of the walkout,” Sragovich said.

According to the South High walkout’s Facebook event page, 140 people will be going and 63 people are interested in attending.

In addition to the student walkouts, there will also be March for Our Lives events on March 24.

Editor’s note: This article will be updated as more information becomes available.

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