School walkouts, sit-ins planned after Florida shooting

Protesters hold signs at a gun control at the Broward County Federal Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale Florida on February 17 2018 Seventeen perished and more than a dozen were wounded in the hail of bullets at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in ParklandFlorida the latest mass shooting to devastate a small US community and renew calls for gun control PicAFPThe mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead has sparked calls for walkouts sitins and other actions on school campuses across the United States aimed at pushing lawmakers to pass tougher gun lawsOrganisers behind the Womens March an antiTrump and female empowerment protest called for a 17minute walkout on March 14 to protest Congress inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighbourhoods The Network for Public Education an advocacy organization for public schools meanwhile announced a national day of action on April 20 the anniversary of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado in which two students opened fire on their classmates killing 12 students and one teacherThe organization is encouraging teachers and students to organize sitins walkouts marches and any other events to protest gun violence in schoolsThe politicians sit on their hands as our children and their teachers are murdered in their schools Diane Ravitch the groups president and Carol Burris its executive director said in a post onlineThe protest plans circulated widely on social media on Saturday signaling that the outcry for new gun legislation may not fade away as it has after other recent mass shootings Many of those shootings including the deaths of 20 firstgraders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut in 2012 led to a push for new gun laws but those efforts stalled in CongressWe need to make this moment a movement and to actually make changes that need to happen in this country so that these kinds of weapons AR15s are not in the hands of people who shouldnt have them said Randi Weingarten president of the American Federation of Teachers a union representing teachers and other educatorsWeingarten said she was part of the discussions about the April 20 protest What gives the Florida shooting more potential to spark change she said is that the students themselves got angry really quickly and demanded itTeenage survivors of Wednesdays shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have become advocates for gun control sparring with gunrights activists on social media and calling for safer gun laws at vigils and in television interviews Thousands of angry students parents and residents demanded stricter gun control laws on Saturday at a rally in Fort Lauderdale which is about 20 miles from the site of the shooting in ParklandSome people in online posts called for a Civil Rightsera style boycott of schools until gun laws are changed David Berliner a professor of education at Arizona State University who also participated in the plans for the April 20 protest said he would support such a boycott He recalled watching a television news report about Wednesdays shooting at an airport I am crying and Im watching all the people all around me crying and I just said This has got to stop he saidClare Schexnyder a mother of a middleschool student in Decatur Georgia said she wants moms to take their kids out of school for a day to make a statement She said a private Facebook page she launched announcing a meeting of her Stop School Shootings group after the Florida shooting attracted more than 7000 followers overnight Her protest is planned for March 14Catch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever