On March 14, tens of thousands of students across the United States walked out of their classrooms for 17 minutes at 10 a.m. local time as part of the National School Walkout demonstration to honor the victims of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting and to protest gun violence. As the topic of school safety continues to remain a focal point of national conversation, Scholastic is working to provide teachers and parents with resources to start conversations with children.
Our classroom magazines covered the walkouts in age-appropriate ways:
- For grades 4-6, Scholastic News Magazine published this article
- For grades 6-8, Junior Scholastic Magazine published this article
- And for grades 9-12, The New York Times Upfront published this article
The Scholastic News Kids Press Corps also covered a walkout at the California School of the Arts. Kid Reporter Jeremy Hsiao was on the scene and talked to students about why they chose to participate.
We also recently released a podcast episode in which we talked with Dr. Jamie Howard, a trauma specialist from the Child Mind Institute, and Julie Ballew, a fifth-grade teacher from Houston, Texas, about how to talk about violence and tragedy with children of all ages. You can listen to that episode here.
Scholastic has also updated our online resources about how to respond to violence and tragedy, and one of our Top Teaching bloggers discusses how to calm fears and frustrations in the wake of tragedy.
Scholastic will continue to support schools, teachers and children every day, using the expertise we are known for.
