Days after at least 19 elementary school students and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uwalde, Texas, schoolchildren across the country staged protests in protest of gun violence.
In Michigan, students at Oxford High School, where a shooting took place at a school in November, staged a walk at 12 noon on Thursday. Four students were killed in the shooting.
Oxford High School students left classes on May 26, 2022, to show their support for the Uwalde, Texas community and the recent mass shooting that took place at Rob Elementary School.
Mandi Wright / Detroit Free Press-USA Today Network
Students at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, also left a class in support of the National Arms Safety Movement. The school was the site of a shooting in November 2019 that killed two students.
Students also organized walks to schools in Port Washington, New York, and Falls Church, Virginia.
Student organizers say at least 600 students left Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School in Port Washington earlier this afternoon.
Emma Janoff, an 11th-grader at Schreiber and a member of Students Require Action, a national organization against gun violence, says she has been active in gun control and school safety policy since the 2018 Parkland High School shooting.
Oxford High School students are returning to school after leaving classes on May 26, 2022 in Oxford, Michigan, to show their support for the Uwalde, Texas community and the recent mass shooting that took place at Rob Elementary School.
Mandi Wright / Detroit Free Press-USA Today Network
“Every day you see news of children being shot and people of your age dying, and it’s just incredibly sad and unbelievable, especially to see younger children and children my age,” Janoff told ABC News. “I can’t imagine it’s me, but it’s possible because it happens so often.”
The 17-year-old said her school’s administration had supported the cost and hoped more than 200 planned demonstrations across the country sent a clear message that the students were a “united front”.
Leaving may not necessarily change the law, Janoff said, but these actions show that “students are still united.”
She said that although most students are not old enough to vote, they still want to see change and are ready to take action to make their voices heard in politics.
“Students should not keep quiet about this just because they are children,” Janoff said.
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