At EHS, a group of students including juniors Maddie Risk and Victoria Koudelka,  decided to plan a walkout for their own school grounds.

Risk herself was a speaker at a protest in St. Paul on Labor Day, advocating for gun regulation laws and the creation of a department of violence intervention. So, when the student walkout became a conversation, Risk and Koudelka were ready to take action, “I [Risk] was originally contacted by Tori [Victoria] Koudelka because both of us work through the Eagan Youth Council,” Risk states. “We talked, and we were like, hey, this is like a really good idea.”

Risk explains further, the walkout was personal for her, as she has had a long history of protesting and acting on change in her community.

“Since I’ve been in like third grade, I’ve been involved with protesting. The first protest I ever went to was against gun violence when I was in elementary school, and I do have distinct memories. It was the first time I could make real, tangible change in the world on such a large scale, and I think that’s so important to have that here at Eagan High School to be able to be a part of something that’s so big.”

Koudelka expresses similar sentiments, “The walkout personally means to me that it’s an opportunity to raise their [student] voices to speak about the things they care about.”

Koudelka also speaks on the difficulties of being a high school student and trying to make an active change.

“Sometimes, as a high schooler, it can be hard to feel like you can make a difference, and this is all just a way that we can put our foot forward and try to change the environment we were raised in.”

 For the change Kouldeka would like to see after the walkout, she says a change by political figures in power would be her hope.

“My hope for all this, and while I know that it’s not immediate, and it’s that legislators want change and start to see the children impacted by the gun violence and want change that will make some actual headway,” Koudelka says. Furthermore, she states making progress would entail “ banning assault rifles or to change the systems that don’t produce people that feel the need for change.”

Eagan Independent also asked other EHS student participants about what the protest meant to them and what change they wish to see come of the walkout. 

Sophomore Braeden Hoang, a student in the walkout, voiced that his participation meant for him to “[be] able to protest freely. ”

Sophomore Evelyn Shutt said her reasoning for joining the walkout was to “[speak] up about an issue that has been happening since I was too young to understand,” Shutt said. “I’ve grown up in a place where it was a drill, it was constant, a back-of-the-mind worry, and being able to come out here today was really good for me to just process if that’s not right.” Shutt explains the change she wishes to see as a result of the walkout is for “guns to get banned or at least have restrictions put on them.”