Students protest gun laws, school deaths during walkout

David Hogg, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a gunman shot and killed 17 people on February 14, called that unequal coverage one of the “greatest obstacles” that #NeverAgain, a student-led anti-gun violence movement created since the massacre, is trying to overcome.

Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott signed the “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act” (SB 7026) into law earlier this month, making it the first legislation enacted in Florida since the Parkland school shooting on February 14.

The student rallies a month after the Florida massacre could indicate a developing change in Americans’ attitudes on gun violence and gun control.

About 90 students from O’Fallon Township High School, like several other schools in the metro-east, faced punishment for walking out of their classrooms last week as a part of a National School Walkout. Students who chose to participate did not face disciplinary action.

A student demonstration at South Point High School also is planned for 10 a.m. Friday, April 20, organized by student Austin Johnson.

Another student said that students should be able to come to school and be safe. “We’re not like Tide Pods”, Deitsch said, referring to the laundry detergent packets that recently sparked a risky social-media-fueled trend of teenagers eating them.

In an interview with CNN’S Van Jones, Oprah Winfrey said, “They were creating this national march to say, “enough”… what it takes to risk that on a national level is what I responded to”. “They’ve provided not only a safe space for us to voice our opinions, but also provided a safe space for those who didn’t want to voice their opinions and stay in class”.

The fight for safety in schools does not end with the March 14 walkout.

A group of students protested the discussion standing silently and holding candles in the falling snow.

Many people in attendence demanded that those convicted of domestic violence be prohibited from owning a gun.

“At our middle school and elementary school we encouraged kids to walk up rather than walk out”. I got some individual texts, and people would post on social media and tag me and say ‘Toby is doing this and this, ‘ but it wasn’t bad.

The Mayor, meanwhile, rallied with teens from Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn. They’re taking a stand before it begins again.

One 18-year-old student, Alia Hassan, said: “We stand in solidarity with Stoneman Douglas, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, University of Texas, Columbine, Red Lake. You need to understand that you are the leaders of this movement right now”, Mayor James said.

“I am out here in support of the kids that were shot and killed on Florida”, one of the students said.

Darrian Manalo, a senior at Battle Ground, said he walked out to pay his respects to the victims of the shooting and to advocate for gun laws.

Meanwhile on the Arcata Plaza and elsewhere throughout the county and nation, students also held 17 minutes of silence.

At Mountain Ridge, part of the Deer Valley Unified School District, almost 50 students in orange shirts walked to the football field at 10 a.m. and laid out giant letters that spelled “ENOUGH”.

On what would have been John Lennon’s 77 birthday, October 9, 2017, I remembered the man who asked us to Imagine “all the people living life in peace” in the aftermath of the Las Vegas slaughter of 58 people attending a country music festival.

“It was just the right time to take action”, Tinnel said.