CHARLOTTE — Instead of protesting gun violence by walking out during National Student Walkout Day March 14, students at several Catholic schools in the Diocese of Charlotte turned to prayer.
Across the country, students joined in a 17-minute walkout – one minute for each of the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. – in honor of the one-month anniversary of the mass shooting.
Instead of protesting, students at Catholic schools in the diocese and across the nation prayed, either individually or in groups.
At Charlotte Catholic High School, student council members led the school in prayer over the loudspeakers before several classes, said Principal Kurt Telford.
Shortly after the Feb. 14 deadly shootings in Florida, students at Charlotte Catholic High School had met with administrators to discuss how to best handle this “protest,” Telford said. “I told them I didn’t want the students to walk out. We talked about praying a rosary or a special Mass. Students decided to pray prayers they picked out before each period.”
Students highlighted and memorialized victims of the recent shooting in addition to the prayers, Telford said.
“We’re at a Catholic school. We pray. That’s what we do,” Telford said. “We have the ability. That’s part of our Catholic culture to pray.”
Two students did walk out of class, and Telford said he told students that there would be a penalty if they did leave. He said he didn’t tell students in advance what that penalty would be. That punishment – community service – ended up being similar to the penalty that students incur if they leave class without permission.
“I’m very proud of our students,” Telford said. “I started the day by saying a family prayer. We are family at Charlotte Catholic. I believe at the Catholic schools, we have more options than a public school may have. Our school is centered around prayer.”
About a dozen students at Christ the King High School in Huntersville left classes to pray, said Principal Carl Semmler.
“It was voluntary. Some students just sat quietly, a couple walked around the back courtyard – which is protected – and some prayed the rosary together,” Semmler said. “Ultimately, the only stipulation was they couldn’t go out the front of the building, for safety reasons.”
“It was a nice little event,” he said. “It wasn’t the majority of the students, by any stretch, who chose to participate. It was pretty positive, and they were well behaved.”
Students returned to class after about 15 minutes, he said.
It wasn’t just high schools in the diocese that turned to prayer last week. Students at St. Mark School in Huntersville also prayed.
The third high school in the diocese, Bishop McGuinness High School in Kernersville, could not be reached for comment.
Praying instead of protesting was the trend across the nation in Catholic schools.
In the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, more than 100 middle school students, teachers and parents gathered on their school’s front steps in St. Paul for 17 minutes of silence and prayer. They lit 17 blue candles in memory of those who died in the Florida school shooting and held signs in honor of each deceased person.
In Missouri, Catholic school students held a prayer service that included an encouragement for students to write a commitment to action and place it in a basket in the chapel. The suggestions included reaching out to someone at the school who may be experiencing difficulties or is picked on, expressing love and care to a family member, and more. At another school in St. Louis, the students marched in the street wearing orange armbands or orange shirts, carrying posters with messages such as “#StopTheViolence,” “Enough is enough” and “Blessed are the children.”
In the Archdiocese of Denver, where schools offered special Masses, prayed the rosary or held prayer services March 14, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila urged archdiocesan Catholic schools to use the time of prayer for the conversion of hearts and for the souls of those who died.
Elias Moo, Denver’s archdiocesan superintendent of Catholic schools, echoed the bishop’s words, saying: “We believe the first and most important response can and should be to unite in prayer."
— Kimberly Bender, online reporter. Catholic News Service contributed.