Independence High shooting raises questions about youth violence outreach, gang ties<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cA lot of people were crying that day and I was super worried and because my sister was stuck then she couldn’t get out,\u201d one student said.<\/p>\n
Another added, \u201cI didn’t even want to come to school.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the walkout, students held homemade signs memorializing Levi Brown and calling for changes, including metal detectors. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we had metal detectors, they had our school at Friday night. The guns wouldn’t have made it in and nothing would have happened,\u201d a student said. \u201cThis commotion would have been outside of the school and it would have been noticed sooner. And I’m pretty sure they could have prevented it very easily.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students also raised concerns about how the school responded during the incident, saying there was confusion and a lack of direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no plan. We filed onto this one staircase. There was no plan. I feel that everybody there was more injured due to the stampede than the actual shot,\u201d a student said.<\/p>\n
Some students directed their frustration at the Kern High School District, with signs asking, \u201cWho has failed Levi Brown?\u201d and answering, \u201cKern High District.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students said they hope the walkout leads to changes. <\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully us speaking our minds gets us more protections,\u201d one student said.<\/p>\n
Another issue students raised was the district\u2019s crackdown on cell phone use. Many believed it could leave students unable to contact family during an emergency.<\/p>\n
\u201cKern High School District doesn’t take weapons as seriously as they take the phone policy,\u201d one student said. <\/p>\n
Another added, \u201cThe school district cares more about phones than gun violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
One student called for the phone policy to be reversed, saying it could prevent students from reaching loved ones during a crisis. <\/p>\n
\u201cSeriously think they should take away the phone policy. They’ve [implemented] it since last year. They easily take away the phones. If a school student were to happen, we wouldn’t be able to contact our family,\u201d the student said.<\/p>\n
Eyewitness News reached out to Kern High School District, who responded with the following statement: <\/p>\n
“The Kern High School District is aware of a student-organized walkout at Independence that took place earlier today related to Friday evening\u2019s events. The protest was monitored by both school staff and police officials. The walkout concluded peacefully and students returned safely to class.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 Days after a deadly shooting at a home football game, Independence High School students…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-445185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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