Public meeting scheduled for next Wednesday
By Jason Emerson
Cazenovia school district students, parents, teachers and administrators showed their support for the victims of the Parkland school shooting by holding an honor ceremony and 17 minutes of silence today, Wednesday, March 14, in front of Cazenovia High School.
The event, held at 10 a.m., was part of a national school walkout day held both to honor victims and protest against gun-related crimes — although in Cazenovia the gathering was not a protest but a remembrance.
“We’re here to support the victims of the Parkland shooting, not for anyone’s political agenda,” said Superintendent Matt Reilly. “It was very well done; a nice degree of solemnity,” he told the event organizers, who were members of Project Café.
Approximately 100 members of the Cazenovia community attended the event, standing outside by the high school flag pole in the blowing snow.
March 14 was a previously planned teacher training day, with no school for students, but many students were interested in participating in the nationwide event on school grounds anyway. Discussions between students, faculty and administrators resulted in allowing the ceremony to occur as long as it was non-political in nature, Reilly said. The district removed snow in a large circle on the grounds around the high school flag pole to provide access to however many people ended up attending the event.
Project Café members Lucy Langan, Jamie Joseph and Glenn Hartley led the event, with Langan offering brief remarks about the purpose of the event to honor the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, and to acknowledge the need for safe schools around the country.
The names of all 17 victims of the Parkland massacre were read aloud, followed by an observance of 17 minutes of silence — one minute for each victim.
“School safety is a big issue now around the country with all the tragedies that have occurred, especially Parkland,” Langan said after the event. “It’s important for our community to be serious about it and talk about it.”
“This can happen anywhere; it’s better to plan ahead before it happens,” Hartley said.
Joseph said that even though there was no school for students today, she felt it was important that so many students showed up to the event despite the winter storm that closed schools across the region today. “I feel like it meant even more that we were here because of the snow,” she said.
While the March 14 ceremony was announced to students as a non-political affair, Dara Harper and her two children, Amie and Rio, ages 11 and 12, showed up with signs they held throughout the event that said “Enough” — the political slogan of those around the country who participated to demand Congress pass tighter gun control legislation.
“I came because the kids at Sandy Hook are our kids; the kids at Parkland, those are our kids too … We don’t need to do this every week — it’s ridiculous,” Dara said.
It was announced at the event that the district is hosting a community meeting at 7 p.m. next Wednesday, March 21, in the high school to talk about school safety. Reilly said it will be an opportunity for people to help problem solve on safety issues, and the administration will discuss — as much as it can — the measures it has taken to ensure Cazenovia is as protected from violence as is possible.
