By AJ Patencio
In honor of the many school shootings in the past years, a National School Walkout is being organized on April 20, which is the 19th anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting. The walkout will begin at 10:00 am when students will walk out of their schools, take thirteen seconds of silence for the thirteen killed in the Columbine shooting, then use the rest of the day for organized protests. Participants are encouraged to wear orange, the color of the anti-gun violence movement. Over 2,000 walkouts are registered* in the U.S. with at least one per state and several registered outside the U.S. The Walkout was organized by 16-year-old Lane Murdock, who grew up three miles from Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School where 20 students were killed in 2012.** Murdock and three of her fellow classmates at Ridgefield High School were dissatisfied with the seventeen minutes of silence for the Florida Massacre that killed seventeen people. They hope to bring a stronger message that students will not be silenced or forgotten.
Editor: Bella Bier
*https://www.actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/enough-national-school-walkout
**http://time.com/5238216/national-school-walkout-april-20/
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