Across the Tampa Bay area and around America, students walked out of class to take a stand against gun violence.
During the National School Walkout, students left their classrooms to teach lawmakers a lesson. They feel more needs to be done to stop gun violence.
“We need to come together as a group and we need to solve this issue,” said one student.
At 10 a.m., students at St. Petersburg High School joined students from thousands of schools across America.
The National School Walkout was a brainchild of a Parkland student. They’re demanding sensible gun laws and they’re holding elected officials accountable.
In St. Petersburg, the students marched to St. Petersburg City Hall, where they were flanked by Mayor Rick Kriseman and Representative Charlie Crist.
“You gotta keep the energy going. We don’t have elections for about another six months but it’s important to be engaged and it’s wonderful that these young people are leading the charge. I can’t thank them enough, very impressive,” said Rep. Crist.
Even though there were national events last month, these participants feel it is vital to keep the conversation going.
“If we keep the ball rolling, if we keep moving, that means we get more voices registered, we get more students registered and it means that our cause will continue to fight,” said organizer Kai Tomalin.
Immediately afterwards, the group marched to the Supervisor of Elections office, where teens registered to vote.
“This is going to be history one day and that we need to think about the issue. All Americans need to think about the issue as what side of history do they want to be on and how they want to be remembered,” said Tomalin.
These teens say the movement won’t end here and they’re not going away.
The national organizers of this movement stated on their website that they’re planning another nationwide event on May 19.
