Peaceful demonstrations held at Menifee high, middle schools

Hundreds of students at Paloma Valley and Heritage high schools left their classrooms at 10 a.m. Wednesday to participate in a nationwide demonstration against gun violence, a school district official said. Students gathered in a designated area on campus and returned to class after the 17-minute demonstration.

"I'm very proud of our students," said Candace Reines, deputy superintendent for the Perris Union High School District. "Administrators at each school had set parameters with a safe area for students to walk to. They went right to those designated areas."

Reines didn't have details about the nature of the demonstrations at Paloma Valley and Heritage but described each as peaceful, with students holding up signs. The 17-minute length was established to honor the 17 victims of the school shooting Feb. 14 at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Reines said she received a report from Paloma Valley principal Jennifer Thomasian that about 500 students participated and not one left campus. Students returned to class promptly afterward.

In the Menifee Union School District, several hundred students participated in walkouts at the three Middle Schools: Menifee Valley Middle School, Bell Mountain Middle School and Hans Christensen Middle School, according to district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus.

"Those middle school students wishing to express their support of nationwide walkouts were given a place to gather on campus at each of the middle school sites for 17 minutes," Cadmus said. "They then returned to class. The District wanted to be supportive of the students’ right to express themselves."

Students at Santa Rosa Academy chose not to walk out and decided on another course of action, said Executive Director Laura Badillo.

"Several students asked about participating in the walkouts and met with our principal a few weeks ago," Badillo said. "They discussed how to make positive change happen and how we could help the victims/families of the tragic shooting events in Florida. While walking out would focus attention on the issue, it may or may not let their individual voices be heard in a specific way (such as offering suggestions on how to keep kids safe at school).

"They decided on two things: that writing letters to our local politicians during our character period would make a more positive impact at the legislative level. Those letters will be forwarded to (Assemblywoman) Melissa Melendez and (Congressman) Ken Calvert. Secondly, they would also provide the Go Fund Me link to all students so that they could donate money to the victims' families. Because the students collaborated on this solution, it was decided that they would not need to walk out of class."