Students Stage National School Walkout to Protest Shootings

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a school shooting took 17 lives one month ago, kicked off a national school walkout Wednesday morning to press elected officials to take action on school gun violence.

More than 2,800 demonstrations in all 50 states were expected to draw hundreds of thousands of students and others, according to organizers with Women’s March Youth Empower, which helped coordinate the “#Enough” school walkouts.

In Washington, D.C., several thousand students congregated in front of the White House, their backs turned, and held a 17-minute moment of silence.

Then, the students set off down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol, chanting: “Hey hey, ho ho, the NRA has got to go!” Some marched despite threats of disciplinary action by their schools.

“We’re changing the way people see teenagers,” her friend Lilly Behbehani said.

Nearby, the east lawn of the Capitol was covered with 7,000 pairs of shoes, one for each child killed since the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Conn., according to activists.

Later on Wednesday, the House of Representatives planned to vote on a bill, dubbed the Stop School Violence Act, which will authorize $50 million in annual funding for school security upgrades. And Florida Gov. Rick Scott last week signed into law a measure that added new gun restrictions, such as raising the minimum age to buy any type of firearm to 21.

But many students are calling for more action. Among the demands listed by the Enough campaign are a ban on semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines, and the expansion of background checks to all gun sales.

“In my neighborhood, I don’t even go outside because they be shooting all the time,” said Eric Reed, a 16-year-old sophomore. “I’m here to make sure our politicians work to keep us safe.”

At Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, more than 1,000 students walked out of class at 10 a.m., chanting, “No more silence! End gun violence.”

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