With approval from school officials, hordes of Habersham Central’s students walked out of class Friday morning in support of the victims of the Apalachee High School shooting in early September that left four dead and nine injured.
The demonstration came as students across the state held similar walkouts organized by March for Our Lives – a group dedicated to legislative efforts to reduce gun violence.
Just after 10 a.m. Friday, more than 200 students exited the main building and followed Elloree Chambers, the 16-year-old junior who organized the walkout, across campus before they filed into the school’s gymnasium.
Chambers said she’d decided to lead the movement to raise awareness of a specific message – an end to gun violence in schools.
In the days leading up to the demonstration, she’d met with Principal Adam Bagwell to discuss security measures the school could take – such as metal detectors and additional resource officers – to prevent such tragedies on Habersham’s campus. Chambers pitched the idea of a walkout, which she said Bagwell supported.
Chambers spoke with Now Habersham several days before the walkout.
“The day of the Apalachee shooting – I felt it really deeply,” said Chambers, who spread word of the walkout by mouth and through social media. “I really felt like I wanted to do something about it. I just thought (the walkout) was something I could do to really make some noise about the situation…maybe some lawmaker somewhere will say, ‘Oh, these kids are willing to miss school for this cause.’ Maybe, they would look at that and say, ‘I need to make a law that (prevents) kids from getting guns in their hands, so this doesn’t happen again.’ I just really want it to make some noise.”
Despite prior clearance from school administrators to attend the event, Now Habersham was denied entry into the gym for reasons Bagwell declined to disclose in person. Bagwell, who requested questions be sent via email, could not be reached for comment regarding potential future plans for heightened security or his decision to bar the media from Friday’s event.
Now Habersham obtained video footage of the demonstration from Elloree’s mother, Neile Chambers, who was among those in attendance on Friday.
Standing between bleachers packed with students, Neile watched as her daughter did, in fact, make some noise – first through a prayer and then a moment of silence for the two students and two teachers who lost their lives on Sept. 4.
Standing in the center of the gym floor, Elloree spoke through a microphone to her fellow students.
“We need to foster a community of safety through conflict resolution, emotional management and the importance of kindness,” she said. “By building strong support in school communities, we can reduce the likelihood of violence and create environments where every student feels valued and safe. Ending gun violence in schools requires action from all of us…to ensure our schools remain places of hope and opportunity.”
Elloree’s remarks were followed by a wave of applause.
“I was just incredibly proud,” Neile Chambers told Now Habersham after the walkout. “As a parent, you hope to raise humans who are kind and who think of others. This was a real credit to her character and a glimpse into the smart, funny and kind young woman she is becoming.”
Following in sisters’ footsteps
As the third of four siblings, Elloree Chambers’ instinct for activism appears to run in the family: Her sister, Duren, was involved in a walkout in 2020 during nationwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.
Before that, Elloree’s eldest sister, Avery, also led a walkout at Habersham Central in 2018 after a mass shooting claimed the lives of 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
“I’m so, so proud of Elloree for wanting to do this,” said Avery Chambers, now a 22-year-old student at the University of Georgia. “It’s really, really hard – especially in Habersham County where it’s a primarily red group of people. It’s hard to be in high school and have some political views that are different from the people around. I’m so honored that she cares about this as much as I do and that she’s also willing to stand up for this big, important (issue) that we both care about.”
Elloree credited her sisters and her family for her efforts to stand against gun violence.
“Something that has always been preached in my home is kindness,” she said. “I think this is just a way of spreading that. There are people that went home (from Apalachee) that day who will be impacted for the rest of their lives.”
Now, two years from graduation, Elloree said she plans to continue her education at the college level, and while she doesn’t yet know exactly what field she’ll pursue, she’s confident about what she wants to do.
“I want to do something that ends up with me helping people,” she said. “I don’t know exactly where that leads me right now, but I just know I want to help people.”
As students returned to class Friday, Bagwell said he was “incredibly impressed” by his students. Earlier in the week, he’d conveyed a similar message.
“Our students are amazing,” he said. “I support our students when they want to do things that are positive. I wanted to support (Elloree), and I want to support our kids when they’re doing good things.”
