Aurora area students stage walkouts to honor Florida shooting victims

Chico, Calif. -Following the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida that left 17 people dead, several high schoolers have now come forward to make their voices heard calling for more gun control.

A student of Coral Glades High School, a high school less than four miles from Stoneman Douglas, holds a sign as classmates participate in a walk out for gun law reform in Coral Springs, Florida, on February 21, 2018.

Walkouts have been reported in various states, including Florida, Colorado, Minnesota and IL, where some school administrators said they were instructed to allow students to walk out peacefully, while others, like those in the eastern Texas city of Needville, said they had a zero tolerance policy toward such demonstrations.

Some faculty members and community members also joined in the student-organized walkout.

Additional school walkouts have been organized around Missoula and across the country in response to the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The students were supervised by school officials, who say they support the teenagers’ First Amendment rights to protest, according to Kenton County Schools spokesperson Jess Dykes. “But when you got a thousand students standing up saying “we’re not going to take this BS anymore” that’s when change happens”, Tortoris said. Some said they believed teachers should be armed, something Hill doesn’t want.

“The Orlando shooting, Las Vegas and now Parkland”, he said.

“It’s not okay that all these children are being killed when they should be safe”, one student said.

Levi Roth arrived home from school February 14 as the preliminary death toll was being announced on television after the shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

“[I’m] super proud of my daughter for walking here from her school and for supporting her friends and for standing up for a cause”, said Veronica Block, who arrived at the school after. “I think it’s awesome that they’re doing a walkout, and I think it’s about time for common sense gun control”. MSD students were traveling on Tuesday to Tallahassee, Florida’s capital, for a day of activism on Wednesday.

DeLand police said they’re glad the student reported the sighting, even though it turned out to be a false alarm. Hundreds have said they are attending the march. The 17-minute walkout will represent the 17 lives lost that day. He wants lawmakers to listen to young people about issues surrounding school safety.

But when they stepped through their schools main door, dozens of their classmates walked with them, chanting “safer schools, safer guns”.

“Walk out, kids. Get suspended”.

When Maura Duffy and Kyra Gardner put up flyers at school yesterday they weren’t sure if 5 students or 50 would answer their all to action.