Marion County Police officers walk out Forest High School after a school shooting in Ocala, Florida. — AFP photo
WASHINGTON: Students demanding tougher gun laws walked out of classes across the United States, the 19th anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School which left 13 people dead.
As thousands of teenagers held rallies from coast to coast, a shooting at a high school in Ocala, Florida, left one student wounded.
Students gather for a rally in Washington Square Park. — Reuters photo
The Ocala Star Banner newspaper said a 19-year-old former student at Forest High School fired a blast from a shotgun into a locked classroom door, wounding a 17-year-old student in the ankle.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office said the suspect, who was not identified, was quickly arrested. Around the country, students marked the anniversary of the April 20, 1999 shooting at Columbine in Colorado, a massacre seen as the harbinger of an era of school violence.
“I feel like things have gotten worse these last few years,” said Emma Corcoran, a 15-year-old from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Maryland, at a rally in Washington.
“Change needs to happen.”
The protests have been galvanised by students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 14 teens and three adult staff members were shot dead on Feb 14 by a troubled former classmate armed with an AR-15-style automatic weapon.
The Parkland students have spearheaded a grassroots campaign for gun control which included another school walkout on March 14 and nationwide rallies by hundreds of thousands of Americans on March 24.
“So proud of the üNationalSchoolWalkout and all of the students around the country who are standing up for positive change and demanding what we deserve,” tweeted Cameron Kasky, a Parkland student leader.
In Parkland, David Hogg, a Stoneman Douglas student, said he hopes the walkout inspires people to ‘get out and vote.’
“That’s what this country needs,” Hogg said.
“We just have to get out there and make our voices heard.”
“I hope it inspires people to make a change,” added Hogg’s sister, Lauren.
“I hope it shows people that although we’re not old enough to vote yet, we’re old enough to have a voice.”
In Washington, several hundred students from area high schools rallied outside the White House and then marched on Congress to demand action on gun control.
Carrying signs reading ‘Enough Is Enough’ and ‘Books Not Bullets,’ they chanted ‘We will vote’ as they marched. — AFP