It’s been 19 years since the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, a little more than two months since the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas and just a few hours since a student in Ocala was hit with a bullet in his ankle.
A few dozen Stoneman Douglas students walked out of school at 10 a.m. on Friday to mark the anniversary of Columbine, which they see as the start of a plague of school shootings in the United States — and what should have been the end.
“It's transitioned from Columbine to now Stoneman Douglas. We have one commonality between us, which is this terrible tragedy that has happened to both of our schools,” junior Alex Wind said. “We need to show that we stand together.”
Two students carried a large banner from the Parkland school down the street to a nearby park and unfurled it on the floor under a gazebo. In blue paint were the words “Never Again” — the slogan Stoneman Douglas students have used to describe the renewed national gun control movement they have led since the Feb. 14 shooting that resulted in 17 deaths. Red footprints tracked across the poster. Students took turns signing it and plan to send it to Columbine.
After the walkout, some students planned to join in Columbine’s tradition of performing community service on the anniversary.
