Organizers of a walkout planned for Friday said students at Champaign high schools are being forced to choose between participating in the civic demonstration around gun violence and attending prom. The walkout and subsequent events planned at the Independent Media Center in Urbana are part of a nationwide day of action around gun violence on April 20 — the anniversary of the Columbine school shooting.
A student organized town hall on gun violence attracted a crowd of more than 100 people to the Champaign Public Library Thursday night. The event was hosted by students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and five area high schools.
Students from eight high schools in the Champaign-Urbana area will stage a demonstration Saturday to call for stronger gun control measures. The protest is one of hundreds of similar events happening across the country, including Washington D.C., under the moniker “March For Our Lives.”
For the more than 3,000 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Wednesday's mass shooting was terrifying and life-changing. But what of the tens of millions of other children, in schools across the country, who have since heard about what happened and now struggle with their own feelings of fear, confusion and uncertainty?
The Broward County, Fla., sheriff said 17 people are dead in the Wednesday shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the city of Parkland, northwest of Fort Lauderdale. He said a suspect is in custody.
