More than 200 students at Covina High School joined their counterparts nationwide and across the San Gabriel Valley on Wednesday to urge adults to do what it takes to end gun violence — except in their case, the Colts mainly spoke to each other.
Students walked arm in arm onto the school’s football field and held a memorial for the 17 people killed Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. For Covina High School senior Trinity Vogel, it was a chance to communicate that she and other students shouldn’t have to be scared to go to school.
“I believe that it is important for people to know that we stand with the victims of the school shootings,” Vogel said.
But to Vogel’s dismay, that message didn’t get out beyond the campus.
Media representatives were barred from covering the event. A parent was also turned away from the campus.
“It didn’t accomplish anything because no one was able to see what we were doing to let them know we are against gun violence,” senior David Sanchez said.
Both Principal Casey Stratton and the Northview High School student who serves as Covina-Valley Unified School District’s public information officer, Andre Tinoco, declined to discuss why journalists were kept from covering the event, which was also attended by Mayor Jorge Marquez and Chief John Curley of the Covina Police Department.
Stratton said he would not respond because he did not have a “relationship” with the reporter from this news organization. Journalism students from a Mount San Antonio College digital news website were also barred from covering the event.
On Tuesday, a faculty representative had OK’d attendance by the media.
Student organizers issued a statement on March 5 to announce the event, inviting members of the media, parents and community members.
Official Press Release by the #EnoughCHS Committee @PennyArevalo @ABC7 @UnivisionNews @KCAL9 @SGVN @SGVTribune @Covina_ASB #enoughchs pic.twitter.com/tQQK8Zbkzu
— #EnoughCHS (@CHSEnough) March 6, 2018
The twitter handle @CHSEnough was formed March 2 to build support for the walkout. Besides the 47 tweets, student organizer Bailey Magana, Associated Student Body vice president, wrote in an email: “Media coverage would help us make an impact on our community because students are the voice that this generation needs.”
A parent of a student at Covina High also tried to visit the campus Wednesday and was turned away, according to a video interview with SAC on Scene reporter Joliana Frausto.
Her son, David Sanchez, later said he had wanted his voice to be heard but was denied the opportunity to do so. His mother said her son had written a speech to give at the walkout but that Stratton and student organizers had said he couldn’t. According to a copy he provided, Sanchez’s speech mostly focused on ending gun violence. A a small section criticized President Trump.
The event was a wasted opportunity, Sanchez said, because students were only talking to each other.
https://twitter.com/jolianaaaa/status/973974768264204288
As part of the event, organizers set up 17 student desks, each bearing a name of one of the 17 people killed in Parkland and a flower, at the center of the field. Two students gave speeches promoting students being kind to one another, which they admitted was an imperfect solution to preventing school shootings but a worthwhile effort nonetheless.
Marquez declined comment about the district’s last-minute decision to block media access.
Senior Dylan Smith said overall, he was satisfied: “Our message may not have spread as far as we’d like without media coverage, we were still able to spread our message locally to our community, and at the time being it is sufficient enough.”
Later Wednesday, Tinoco, the district’s student spokesman, issued a press release on district letterhead, saying: ““Many Covina-Valley Unified secondary students expressed their constitutional right and peacefully protested in support of the National Walk to End School Violence. Students honored the 17 people who recently lost their lives in Florida. Student and staff safety is our number one priority.”
