On March 14, 2018, the students of Eleanor Roosevelt High School organized a school walkout at 10:00 AM for 17 minutes in order to honor the 17 teenagers who where killed during the Florida school shooting one month ago. Aside from considering arming the teachers in Florida, our federal government has done nothing for these children. The walkout was both a protest and 17 minutes of silence to pay our respects to the 17 teenagers who died that day.

Schools all over America participated in the walkout. Students were under the judgment that they should never have to run away from guns again, thus they walked. “It has been a month since the shooting in Florida where 17 people lost their lives and nothing has changed,” Rhea Mehra, senior at Eleanor Roosevelt shared with us why she participated in the walkout, “the only thing that has changed is Florida passing a bill to arm teachers yet, will a teacher ever pull a trigger on a student? Although we do not know, I strongly believe they wouldn’t.”

“Walking out may seem small in a lot of people’s eyes yet having at least 1700 students at the quad being nothing but respectful shows nothing but pride and determination to get something done. To get our government to see nationwide students like us who walked out or students in Massachusetts who despite not having school due to 2 ft. of snow still came to stand in the 17 minutes of silence.” Thank you to each and everyone of the students that participated in the walkout and were respectful to the students who died during the shooting and their families. Those of you that did not walk out, thank you for not disrespecting those who did or the victims of the school shooting in Florida.