FHS students walked out of school on March 20 in honor of the 17 victims of the Parkland, Florida mass school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.

 With the approval of principal Von Wade, junior Morgan Treece led and organized the seventeen-minute walkout during the activity period between 3rd and 4th periods. She urged participants to be kind to others, to be a friend to their peers and to keep the families of the Parkland victims in their prayers.

 “I felt like it was something that needed to be done,” Treece said.

 Former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Nikolas Cruz killed seventeen people and wounded seventeen more, making the Parkland shooting one of the deadliest in this nation’s history.

 “I heard about a girl who watched her best friend get murdered right in front of her at the Parkland shooting,” junior Morgan Coleman said. “I can’t imagine the pain those students went through, and I am honestly really proud of our school for uniting and praying for those seventeen lives lost.”

 Students who chose to participate exited toward the front of the school, surrounding Treece and senior Jamesha Hatcher as they gave speeches and led the group in a prayer.

 “School shootings have been going on for far too long,” Hatcher said. “It’s time to change that in whatever way we can. This isn’t something that our nation’s leaders can continue to sweep under the rug.”

 National Walkout Day was marked on March 14 in which close to 3,000 schools nationwide exited their schools at 10:00 a.m. for in a call to end gun violence. Each of the nearly 3,000 schools nationally made their walkouts seventeen minutes long in honor of the seventeen people that were murdered.

 “Even if people don’t agree with walkouts and what they generally stand for,” junior Kailyn Partain said, “they have certainly caused people nationwide to take a second look at what we need to do to end this violence.”

 The FHS walkout on March 20 differed from those on National Walkout Day because of its intention. Instead of urging an end to gun violence, students urged others to be more aware and attentive to those around them.

 “In my opinion, the walk out here could have been done in a different way if it was just for the victims,” senior Banner Monico said. “The term walk out, recently, is associated with gun control.”

 The debate between gun violence and its role in school shootings continues to grow, and student concern continues to be visible.

 “I didn’t want it to be about politics,” Treece said. “My intentions were to focus more on the people and less about the gun debate”