Students walk out of schools, protest gun violence at White House and Capitol

by | Mar 14, 2018 | Education

WASHINGTON – Thousands of students from around the country skipped school to demand the Congress and the president do something to reduce gun violence, protesting in front of the White House and the Capitol as part of a national student walkout on the one-month anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

Students sat down in front of the White House for 17 minutes to honor the 17 students and teachers gunned down at the school before marching toward the Capitol.

 

Students sat down outside the North Lawn at the White House for 17 minutes, honoring the 17 lives lost at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida. (Rhytha Zahid Hejaze/MNS)"It's just amazing to be part of something so unique," said Cassidy Barnette, a 17-year-old senior from Huntingtown High School in Maryland. "There have been marches for just about everything, but for the first time, kids from every school all over the country are marching for the same reason." (Rhytha Zahid Hejaze/MNS)"We have to have that constant fear in our minds that somebody could come into our school and kill us," said Nathan Coleman, a 17-year-old senior at Parkmont School in Washington. "It's ridiculous that we have to live in fear about this, and the government is doing nothing to protect us." (Rhytha Zahid Hejaze/MNS)Students wore orange to unite against gun violence. (Rhytha Zahid Hejaze/MNS)Students sit down in silence outside the North Lawn at the White House. (Rhytha Zahid Hejaze/MNS)"I don't want to have to fear going to school and getting shot at school," said Madison Cuthbert, 15-year-old sophomore at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac Maryland. "We need to speak up for what we believe in." (Rhytha Zahid Hejaze/MNS)Students marched toward the Capitol chanting "Hey, hey. Ho, ho. The NRA has got to go" and "What do we want? Gun control. When do we want it? Now." (Rhytha Zahid Hejaze/MNS)Students protesters demand that Congress do something to stop gun violence in schools. (Rhytha Zahid Hejaze/MNS)"The fact that there's even a consideration that there's a price on lives is ridiculous," said 18-year-old Johnny Molyneaux from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Chevy Chase, Maryland. "The fact that (NRA) is so powerful that it can force the government to not protect its citizens, the job that they're supposed to do, is ridiculous." (Rhytha Zahid Hejaze/MNS)Students chanted "No more silence. End gun violence," protesting outside the Capitol. (Rhytha Zahid Hejaze/MNS)Students held up posters and chanted "We call bullshit" outside the Capitol. (Rhytha Zahid Hejaze/MNS)