SALT LAKE CITY — It was no ordinary Friday at Highland High School in Salt Lake City as nearly 200 students walked out in the middle of the day, demanding lawmakers do something to prevent school shootings.
The walkout took students from campus to neighboring Sugar House Park, where the kids became passionate about what they call unchecked gun violence across the country.
Coordinated by the group “Every Town for Gun Safety," the walkout was part of a national movement that came a little over a week after the deadly mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis.
"I only learned about the walkouts on Monday, and so it's just been a really hectic four days, and so given especially that amount of time, I'm really happy with how many people showed up," shared walkout organizers Carmen Lecluyse.
A senior at the school, Lecluyse shared how she needed to get involved in an effort to save lives.
"Just the fact that it's been an issue for so long, and that it's also completely solvable. This isn't an issue that we see in other countries," she said. "In the UK, in Australia, they had like a shooting, and then they shut it down, and they put a lot of regulations on guns and registering guns and all of those things."
Others who participated felt it was necessary because they no longer feel safe in the classroom and need to exercise their First Amendment rights, no matter their age.
"...the most terrifying thing about it is that we have no proper safeguards," said senior Leif Kious. "We go to school every day. It's a place that we're legally required to be, a place that should be safe, and when we're at our most vulnerable, sort of delving into our studies. We could die at any moment, and the responses to include metal detectors have been ineffective; giving our faculty and staff guns are simply fighting fire with fire.
The consensus among the students was that stricter gun control laws need to be passed, and that weapons with high-capacity magazines should be outlawed. In the meantime, they hope their walkout was noticed by the people who write the laws.
"Small steps. Small steps is all you can take," said Kious. "At this point, we're building a foundation, and this is hopefully just the beginning."
