CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Students around the country fear their school could be next after a gunman killed three students and three adults in Nashville, Tennessee.
Fifty students at Cape Coral High School participated in a nationwide walkout for 40 minutes on Wednesday to protest against gun violence.
Students at Cape High said politicians don’t hear their voices, and their lives are at stake.
“Our feelings aren’t being taken into consideration…no one’s really caring, and it’s our lives at stake,” said Layla Ortonez.
“There’s been a lot of school shootings in America, so we need to put an end to children dying,” said Derrick Oge.
“It was a student-led walkout. It was more of like a sit-down. We all kind of just sat there with signs, and we protested in silence for a bit to just let the feeling and passion sink in, but at some point, our principal did urge us, saying hey, if you want to get your voice out feel free to speak, so students started standing up from where they were sitting with their signs and hands and were speaking their mind talking about how we need to make the change and how we can’t just keep letting this happen.”
Chris Engelhart, principal of Cape Coral High School, emailed parents on Wednesday afternoon. The letter said:
“As to not impede the first amendment rights of students, staff, and school safety, teams followed protocols to guide students to conduct themselves in a safe and non-disruptive manner. Any student that participated in the walkout will be marked absent for the time spent outside of the classroom.”
Emily Grant said she doesn’t support banning all guns, but “they should definitely have more restrictions on who can have guns and who can’t. There should be more to it than anyone turning 18 and being like, ‘oh, I want a gun’ — there should be more background information and everything.”
A Lee County Public Schools spokesperson, also said that all school walkouts are against policy and that the principal is following guidelines.
“Just getting your voice out there and being heard is important. So I think it was worth being absent for it. I think a lot of kids got their ideas out, that’s how they felt, and I think that’s the most important part about it,” said Grant.
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