Maksym (goes by Maks) Gerashchenko’s turn to read a student bio. Courtesy/LAPS

• To honor and remember the victims of school violence  … To identify actions for students to be safer at school

On Monday March 12, 2018 at the Topper Parent Advisory Council, high school staff and I were fortunate to hear from two student leadership representatives about their plans for the walk out.

They expressed that this was planned and organized by local students for students. It was an opportunity to honor the victims of the Parkland tragedy and for students to be heard about the importance of school safety. They explained that they did not want it to be a forum for political agendas in any way. The high school student organizers planned a moment of silence and time for some student remarks. 

Plans at the Mid School were for Los Alamos students to take turns reading bios of students from Parkland High School in Florida. This was very emotional and moving for all in attendance. Just imagine over 600 students standing in a large circle listening quietly and paying tribute to fellow students across the country.

I ended the day, once again, being so very proud of our Los Alamos students.

Students’ actions are part of their education!

We value, protect, and cherish every minute of learning time in the Los Alamos Public Schools. In following our learning standards, here are some of the educational concepts related to the student walk out on Wednesday March 14, 2018.

Civics and Government – Students understand the ideals, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship and understand the content and history of the founding documents of the United States with particular emphasis on the United States and New Mexico constitutions and how governments function at local, state, tribal, and national levels.

Personal Intercommunication Among Students – This is not only an inevitable part of the process of attending school, it is also an important part of the educational process. “Public education must prepare pupils for citizenship.”

We are committed to supporting all students and would like to invite them to continue this discussion at our Community Forum scheduled for 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 20 in the LAHS Speech Theater.