U.S. students protest gun violence

Walkouts across country vary from sombre to angry as young people honour students and teachers killed at Florida school and elsewhere

Students hoisted “Stand United” signs. They chanted “Hey, hey, ho, ho — the NRA has got to go” outside the White House. Others put 14 desks and three lecterns in a circle to honour the students and faculty killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida.

These scenes played out across the country as students put down their pencils and pens and walked out of class to protest gun violence. Activists hoped it would be the biggest demonstration of student activism yet in response to last month’s massacre in Florida.

A personal connection

About 1,400 students wearing orange shirts gathered on a hill at East Chapel Hill High School in North Carolina to listen as student organizers read the names of each of the Parkland victims.

One of the organizers was 18year-old senior Talia Pomp, who said one of her best friends texted her from inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High during the rampage last month.

“That personal connection made it like super real for me ... and this has to be the last one,” Pomp said as she handed out orange T-shirts with #enough written on them.

Before the walkout, students gathered to talk about gun violence in America and what they think about proposals by some Republicans around the country to arm teachers.

“It’s really scary to me how in America we seem to have this constant, or this prevailing, notion that we should fight violence with violence and that’s never, ever the solution,” said senior Frances O’Grady, 18. “And yet our leaders are telling us that we should fight violence with violence, that we should arm teachers. I think that’s just a very dangerous idea.”

Protest, be punished?

While some schools encouraged the walkouts and arranged the school day around them, others took a stand against the protests and threatened punishment.

At Kell High School in Marietta, just northwest of Atlanta, three of the 1,000-plus students walked out, then went back inside after their 17 minutes of protest. The school had said any protesting students would be punished, but it didn’t specify the consequences.

Police patrolled outside.

Hitting close to home

A female student was fatally shot at Huffman High School in Birmingham, Alabama, earlier this month, so dozens of students walked outside and encircled a flagpole, which was still at halfmast in memory of 17-year-old Courtlin Arrington. They spent 17 minutes in silence for the Parkland deaths, and one minute for their slain classmate. A 17year-old junior has been charged with manslaughter in Arrington’s death.