Arizona students walk out to protest gun violence on Columbine anniversary

by Adnan Alam
  • Slug: BC-CNS-Gun Rallies,  300 words.
  • Photos and captions below.

By FORTESA LATIFI
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Students in Arizona and across the nation walked out of their classrooms at 10 a.m. Friday, marking the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School mass shooting and taking more steps in a gun-control movement sparked by the Parkland high school shooting two months ago.

At Metro Tech High School, hundreds of students had their parents sign permission slips to allow them to participate in National Walkout Day. At 10 a.m. students gathered on the field and observed a moment of silence. Then, they filed into the cafeteria where their school I.D. badges were scanned for “safety reasons,” according to a school security guard.

Among the Metro Tech students were two students from Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed by a lone gunman. Charlie Mirsky and Alfonso Calderon Atienzar marched with the crowd, occasionally stopping to take selfies with students who asked.

“We’re here to get kids interested in these issues,” Mirsky said. “It’s about getting the youth involved in politics and getting them to vote.”

As they filed out the open gates of the school, security guards offered them water bottles. A group of special education students and their teachers stood at the border of the school grounds, cheering and holding gun-control signs high.

The Metro Tech students started the 2.5-mile march to the Arizona state Capitol with police driving next to them. A couple of students drove a pick-up truck alongside the crowd, tossing water bottles from the bed of the truck.

After the walkouts, March for Our Lives Phoenix has planned a “die in”  at the Capitol. The organizers of the group said they hope to pressure Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to meet with them, something he so far has declined to do.

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Students from Metro Tech High School arrive at the Capitol after walking out of class at 10 a.m. Friday, accompanied by some faculty and staff members. “My heart was ready to explode, I’m just so happy and proud,” said counselor Kim Robinson, right. (Photo by Jenna Miller/Cronkite News)
Metro Tech High School students (from left) Susan Sanchez, Itzel Valenzuela and Rosa Ortega lie down in protest on the Capitol lawn. “I cannot buy alcohol until the age of 21, but I can own a gun by the end of the day if I feel like it,” Valenzuela told the crowd. (Photo by Jenna Miller/Cronkite News)
“We fight in memory of all victims of violence. We fight for our brothers and sisters and we fight for the future generations, so that no one ever will have to go through this again,” Tania Domenzain Vera, 17, a junior at Horizon High School, told fellow students who walked out of class on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre. (Photo by Daria Kadovik/Cronkite News)