Students Are Coming Together to Protest Gun Violence and Push Lawmakers for Change
Young students in Florida are demanding more gun regulation, and they are not settling for anything less than being heard. On Tuesday, a thousand high school students left class in order to march to Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School to protest gun violence, memorialize the victims of the recent school shooting, and push lawmakers for change.
The Parkland, Fla., high school was the site of a mass shooting that killed 17 people last week, and teens at neighboring schools walked out of class as a call to action. Many are asking for laws to prevent weapons like the AR-15 used in the mass shooting from being as easily obtained.
The spontaneous protest reportedly started between morning periods at West Boca High School, but it grew until at least 1,000 disregarded their principal and teachers by marching out of the building and through the streets.
WATCH: Students from Florida's West Boca High School have walked out of their classes, heading towards Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, as part of a call-to-action by students in the area after the mass shooting last week that killed 17 people https://t.co/JoGj3r547e pic.twitter.com/yqeNwj9PVM
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 20, 2018
After making it 12 miles away from the school, they stood in Parkland, ready to pay their respects and protest.
"Things need to change,” West Boca student Liam Cunicelli said to the Miami Herald. “If all of South Florida, at least, starts protesting about this [then] at least in Florida there might be changes.”
On Tuesday evening a group of survivors of the Marjory Stoneman shooting traveled to Tallahassee by bus to make an appeal at Florida's Capitol. The survivors and supporting protestors held a single message: It is time for action right now. However, when Democrats proposed a bill that would ban assault-type weapons like the AR-15, the House took it off the table.
Florida's students aren't the only ones calling for action either. Walkouts are happening all around the county as high schoolers have taken the call for gun control into their own hands by protesting gun violence on their own.
In Chicago on Wednesday, hundreds of students at Oak Park and River Forest High School walked out of their classrooms while holding banners that demand changes to current gun regulations. The same thing happened in Maryland when three Montgomery County high schools had students walk out.
Hundreds of Blair High students march down Colesville Road for walkout to protest gun violence pic.twitter.com/IaAoRZwUul
— Bethany Rodgers (@BethRodgersBB) February 21, 2018
D.C. students also walked out of school and went to the White House, where local students congregated in protest.
Lots of creative signs at this student protest outside the White House pic.twitter.com/y3mrpwNZG2
— Alexander Panetta (@Alex_Panetta) February 21, 2018
Additionally, two major protests have already been scheduled in March. The Women's March Youth EMPOWER group is planning a 17-minute national school walkout on March 14.
Enough is enough!
Women's March Youth EMPOWER is calling for students, teachers, and allies to take part in a #NationalSchoolWalkout for 17 minutes at 10am on March 14, 2018. Join us in saying #ENOUGH!https://t.co/8ZE8uthRlZ pic.twitter.com/45yCZl4zDm— Women's March (@womensmarch) February 16, 2018
Another march will take place on March 24, called March for Our Lives, and put together by student organizers, including those from Parkland.