Nearly 800 students at City High Middle School marched out of their classrooms just before 10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 14.
This stems from a nation-wide school walk out at a number of schools around the country in response to the Florida shooting which took the lives fo 17 students and teachers at Stoneman Douglas High School.
GRPS Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal said she could not be any more proud of the students in her district.
"I love that they have a voice, and we need to listen to young people," Weatherall Neal said. "We want our students in the Grand Rapids Public Schools to be involved and this just shows their level of commitment to social justice and making a change in this world."
Dozens of students held posters and signs calling for an end to gun violence. Seventeen students said the names and held up pictures of each of the 17 victims of the shooting in Parkland Florida, before a moment of silence.
"I think that being able to see everyone holding up all the 17 victims really speaks volumes so you can visualize and see everyone who was affected and I'm very grateful to be a part of this in front of the whole school and see all of the support," sophomore Isabella Netty said. "Being able to speak his name [Nicholas Dworet, victim of shooting] brings this reality, it's not just something you hear about, it's actual reality."
Two students took to the microphone to express the importance of using their voices to create change. A table was located inside the school for students who are old enough, to register to vote.
Students encouraged anyone, no matter their age, to send letters and make phone calls to their legislators to voice their opinions.
"We want to make sure to support you all and those decisions because we can't let anything like that happen here and we have to do what we can to prevent that," City High Middle School Principal Ryan Huppert said.
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