Villa Maria students were told they would face discipline if they missed a mandatory Mass to participate in a national school walkout.
More than 30 women linked arms in the blustering wind Wednesday morning to stage their own version of the National School Walkout outside Villa Maria Academy on West Eighth Street in Millcreek Township.
The group included Villa alumnae, parents of current and former Villa students, and Roman Catholic sisters who taught at the all-girls school in years past.
It did not include current Villa students, who had been bused a few minutes earlier to the Prep & Villa Events Center and West 12th Street for a mandatory joint Mass with the students of the all-boys Cathedral Preparatory School. Students were told in advance of the Mass that they would face discipline, including detention, if they walked out.
A cheer went up when the group at the Villa campus heard, at about 10:15, that a small group of students had gathered together on their own before the 10 a.m. Mass in remembrance of the 17 people killed in the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
"When I heard Villa was not being permitted to march out with a lot of other schools across the country, I just thought that was such a disservice to these girls," said Alana Handman, who organized the gathering and graduated from Villa Maria in 1963. "We were taught to be socially conscious and to do whatever we could when we were out in the world to make things better."
The group linked arms in a semicircle at 10 a.m. and sang the school's alma mater.
Erie City Councilwoman Liz Allen was among the alumnae in attendance. She brought her school uniform from her senior year at Villa Maria, in 1969, with a sign that read "#MyVilla taught me to think, to speak out, to stand up for justice."
"I was surprised that there wasn't a way to accommodate differences," Allen said. "It was 17 minutes to show visibly that they care about those students (in Parkland, Florida) and to show that they can make a difference."
"They should have the right to follow their conscience," said Sister Mary Lou Kownacki, an Erie Benedictine nun. "These young people are just forming and shaping their conscience. ... I'm sad that their opportunity was squelched."
Madeleine O'Neill can be reached at 870-1728 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNoneill.