Seattle council unanimously supports upcoming student walkout

The Seattle City Council has passed a resolution in support of the upcoming student walkout on Wednesday, March 14.

The council voted 8-0, passing Resolution 31803 urging Seattle Public Schools to support its students’ planned walkout.

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“It recognizes some of the work we have done at the City of Seattle level to address gun violence issues,” said Councilmember Lorena González. “… the reality is that there are things we can do as local cities, like the City of Seattle, to at least support some of the efforts we are hearing about and to address some of these significant public safety and public health concerns.”

“But we know that what we really need are for congressional and state representatives to be bold in this area,” she said. “To allow us to be able to do more at the city to support folks impacted by gun violence and hopefully prevent ongoing police violence.”

The demonstration is in honor of the 17 lives lost at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. It is spearheaded by the Women’s March. Students across the nation will walk out of class at 10 a.m. Wednesday and march for 17 minutes — one minute for each student who died in the Florida shooting. This is separate than another demonstration planned for Saturday, March 24 in Washington DC known as March for Our Lives.

The Seattle school district has already said it will not penalize students for taking part in the walkout. Students in other districts could receive an unexcused absence for the demonstration.

Walkout resolution

The resolution that passed Monday references both marches. It states that Seattle supports the city’s “diverse and civically-minded youth population and their ability to demonstrate with other students across the region and country through actions of solidarity, exercising their First Amendment rights and engaging in the power or advocacy and assembly.”

The council notes that there have been “eight acts of gun violence on school grounds nationwide in 2018, resulting in the injury of 30 people and the death of 20 people,” as of Feb. 20.

The resolution also reference’s Seattle’s own firearm legislation, such as the gun tax. Also, the policy of destroying used police firearms instead of selling them. The gun tax, however, has proven to drive gun stores out of town to avoid the tax. It also has failed to bring in the revenue Seattle predicted. Meanwhile, gun violence in King County has fluctuated.

Resolution 31803 also notes that the city has been actively using Washington’s red flag laws allowing police to remove firearms from at-risk persons. The council concludes its resolution by stating that it opposes any proposal to arm teachers.

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