Students walk out for second day:
On the one-week anniversary of the shooting, students across South Florida walked out of their high schools to demand lawmakers make changes to prevent further gun violence. At Coral Springs High School, the students formed a huge heart on the field.
Thousands of students from about 50 schools across South Florida mounted demonstrations and protests Wednesday — one week after the Parkland school shooting — calling for laws to be changed to curb gun violence.
It marked the second day of the students’ walkouts.
Perhaps the largest crowd came Wednesday afternoon when teens from various schools all converged on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, where authorities say Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 17 people. The demonstrators’ long lines snaked for several city blocks, visible through the aerial images captured by news helicopters. Drivers passing by honked their horns in support.
They chanted, “Enough is enough!” and “How many more?”
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, DFla., was outside Marjory Stoneman praising students. “You all are so strong and you are so articulate,” Nelson told the students as they nodded. “Keep that message going on, because if you don’t, it’ll get swallowed up into the same ol’ same ol’, just like it’s been.”
Upon arriving at the school, some gathered at the same intersection where Marjory Stoneman students had fled to safety a week before. Others were lined along the school fence, crying as they looked at memorials of the slain students.
Janya Gray, a sophomore at Coral Glades High School, walked for an hour and a half with her friend, Nia Lewis, to get to Stoneman Douglas. The walk was “terrible” and the two were sore, but Gray said she wanted to make sure the students’ voices were heard.
“I’m not going to just sit and post on social media, so we got up and actually did something,” Gray said.
Alexis Rosamond, a senior at Coral Springs High School, sat with her shoes off, resting in front of Stoneman Douglas after walking more than 5 miles from her school Wednesday.
Rosamond waved a sign that read “Seventeen Valentines won’t be read” in reference to the 17 killed. The sign featured a large photo of Meadow Pollack, one of the victims who Rosamond said was her best friend.
“She’s the main reason why I’m here,” Rosamond said as she looked at Pollack’s photo. “She’s my whole heart.”
The Broward Sheriff ’s Office and Coral Springs police, as well as paramedics, made sure the students were OK, either guiding traffic or handing out water to keep them hydrated.
Elsewhere, Coral Springs High students formed a giant heart in a field as they held signs.
Cypress Bay High in Weston held a large demonstration on campus, as some held signs, including one that read, “I am here to learn, not to hide.”
Gabriell Gloria, a freshman at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, said most students at his school had left the building about noon.
The demonstrations are expected to last for several days.
On Tuesday, West Boca High students walked more than 12 miles to reach Marjory Stoneman. West Boca High’s Principal Craig Sommer in a statement said that while the walkout wasn’t a planned activity, the administration recognized students “are grieving and the decision not to return to class is a reflection of their grief and frustration with the senseless loss of life.”
Asked whether the students face any penalty for the walkouts, a Palm Beach County school district spokesman didn’t say earlier this week. In Broward County, any violations of the student code of conduct will be handled by individual schools, the school district has said.
The district encourages peaceful and lawful protest only, according to Tracy Clark, spokeswoman for Broward County public schools. “In the event that students walk out or gather, school principals have been informed to direct and remain with students in a designated walkout area, so that supervision is in place,” Clark said.