Nationwide Walk Out Makes a Mark on Midterms

This term some teachers had to move their midterm tests a day forward. The problem: spring midterms interfered with the nationwide school walkout in which many students on campus participated.

On February 14th, 2018, a mass shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. With 17 people killed and several more injured, it was one of the deadliest school massacres in current history.

After the event, students from Douglas, volunteers, activists, and high school students all over the nation came together to take a stand for greater gun control by planning walkouts to take place during the school day. The first walkout, instigated by the Women's March, took place on Wednesday the 14th.

This posed a problem for students at Mission Vista. The walkout took place during second period, the same week as midterms. Although official testing days are Thursday and Friday, some teachers decided to hold their tests a day early, on the same day as the walkout. This brought up the questions: What would this mean for students who planned to walkout, but have to take a midterm?Should tests be moved back to Thursday and Friday? Should teachers let their students take a pause in their midterm? Should students just not walkout?

Freshman Hannah Schmidt explained that she didn't have a midterm scheduled on the day of the walk out, but if she did, she said she felt that it would be “more important that she takes her midterm.” As a freshman, getting strong grades is important to set yourself up for the rest of high school.

Manoela Rezende, a senior, said “I am willing to miss a final in order to attend the walkout.” Manoela added, however, that she would email her colleges ahead of time to make sure, in case she does get in trouble for walking out, they would support her choice and still accept her the upcoming year.

Midterms are stressful, not only for students, but teachers as well. The walk out event gave teachers and students even more to worry about. It is a teacher’s responsibility to keep track of the students in their class, which could be difficult if a large portion of the class leaves to walkout. Nonetheless, some teachers are still showing support for the students that choose to participate.

Mr. Jones, English teacher said, “There's nothing so important that I can't rearrange it to fit a new schedule.”

In the end, the walk out proved to be a relatively calmly executed show of student solidarity and the impact that it had on midterms and graduation requirements has, so far, been minimal.