US high school students stage mass walkout

U.S. students spilled out of classrooms by the thousands on Wednesday morning, waving signs and chanting slogans like “We want change” in a coast-to-coast protest against gun violence prompted by a deadly rampage at a Florida high school last month. The #ENOUGH National School Walkout began in the Eastern time zone at 10 a.m. and […]

U.S. students spilled out of classrooms by the thousands on Wednesday morning, waving signs and chanting slogans like “We want change” in a coast-to-coast protest against gun violence prompted by a deadly rampage at a Florida high school last month.

The #ENOUGH National School Walkout began in the Eastern time zone at 10 a.m. and was scheduled to last 17 minutes, though many protests went longer. The protest rolled westward, with students in other time zones walking out at 10 a.m. local time, including at Colorado’s Columbine High School, where two gunmen killed 13 people in 1999.

The announced duration of the walkouts was intended to commemorate the 17 students and staff killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14. The massacre was the latest in a series of shootings that have plagued U.S. schools and colleges since the Columbine attack.

While many school districts gave their blessings for the protests, others warned of discipline for any students who joined the walkout, though many defied the warnings and left school anyway.