SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Father says his daughter is being pressured to walk out on Wednesday

Mar 10, 2018, 10:01 PM | Updated: Mar 11, 2018, 8:57 am

gun control, Rep. Rick Larsen calls for school safety funding...

Student survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are greeted as they arrive at a rally for gun control reform. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

He’s a Western Washington father. His daughter attends a high school where she is in a leadership position. He wants to remain anonymous to spare his kid from further ridicule over a contentious gun control issue.

“(Other students) are telling her, ‘I can’t believe that you won’t walk out’ or that ‘you are making this political,’” he told the Dori Monson Show. “She’s like, ‘I’m not the one who is making this political’ … if you are saying this is to honor those students who have fallen, let’s not have it on a day that’s defined around the parameters of a political movement group. That makes it political.”

RELATED: Washington passes bump stock ban

Students across America will walk out of class on March 14 — the one month anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. It is a separate demonstration than the Florida students have planned on March 24 — March for Our Lives. This march is organized through the Women’s March website. The website calls for students and faculty to walk out of class for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 lives lost in the Parkland shooting.

Gun control or memorial?

The girl’s father says his daughter is being pressured to take part. His daughter is a hunter and shoots for target practice.

“The thing that pushed me over the edge is that when my child is in a classroom, in a leadership position, and is being told by teachers that, ‘You really need to take ownership and lead this protest; this is your civil rights moment and you need to be actively engaged’ … I don’t think that’s right,” he said.

“’Coerce’ is a tough word,” he added. “They are great teachers. I think they honestly think they are doing the right thing. They were using their influence … so many of these kids look up to them. When they are told, ‘Hey, you really need to jump in here and lead; This is your moment,’ they feel passionate about it. Which is fine, they can do that. But their job is to teach kids how to think, not what to think.”

The father feels that the march is hijacked by a left-leaning political perspective. He says that Conservative viewpoints would not be entertained by schools.

“It immediately jumped to mind that if you are a Conservative leader and you take objection to the money being funneled from the government to Planned Parenthood and you want to plan an equivalent protest for all the lives you feel that have been lost through that … that would be laughed out of the classroom,” the father said.

“You have a right to protest, absolutely,” he said. “But don’t be telling my child, my under 18 child, that you should be protesting this, this, and this.”

FILE - The OpenAI logo is displayed on a cell phone in front of an image generated by ChatGPT's Dal...

Associated Press

OpenAI says its models engaged with US government websites in new model misbehavior disclosure

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — OpenAI disclosed Friday that its artificial intelligence agents had interacted with several U.S. government websites in unexpected ways, discovered as part of an ongoing review into the company’s models’ unanticipated behavior. The AI giant’s models accessed publicly available information on two websites operated by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well […]

18 minutes ago

ritzville i-90 closed visibility...

Jason Sutich

I-90 in Ritzville reopens after dust storm caused multiple collisions

I-90 in Ritzville has reopened after both directions were blocked Friday due to multiple collisions.

2 hours ago

Ballard hit-and-run...

KIRO Newsradio staff

20-year-old sentenced to more than 3 years for deadly 2025 Ballard hit-and-run

The man accused in the hit-and-run death of a pedestrian in Ballard last year has been sentenced to more than three years in prison.

3 hours ago

2 box truck fire SODO...

Julia Dallas

Suspects accidentally light themselves on fire while allegedly trying to steal fuel from box trucks in SODO

Two suspects accidentally set themselves on fire while they appeared to be trying to steal fuel from box trucks in the SODO neighborhood.

4 hours ago

FILE - A TikTok sign is displayed on top of their building in Culver City, Calif., on Dec. 3, 2024....

Associated Press

TikTok settles lawsuit with Alabama for at least $100 million, will implement safety features

TikTok will pay the state of Alabama at least $100 million and must implement a slew of safety features for teens in the state as part of a settlement agreement reached just before the case was set to go to trial. Alabama sued the social media company in 2025 claiming that the platform had negative […]

4 hours ago

FILE - People protest outside a federal immigration enforcement building in Broadview, Ill. on Sept...

Associated Press

Prosecutor accused of misconduct in ‘Broadview Six’ case resigns, says US attorney ‘scapegoated’ her

CHICAGO (AP) — A prosecutor who has been accused of misconduct over a failed attempt to bring felony charges against six protesters of the federal immigration crackdown in Chicago has resigned, saying she was being treated as a scapegoat after the case fell apart. In a scathing letter Thursday to Andrew Boutros, the U.S. Attorney […]

4 hours ago

Father says his daughter is being pressured to walk out on Wednesday