UConn to Applicants: 'Peaceful' Protests Will Not Affect Status

STORRS, CT — University of Connecticut officials on Friday assured applicants that their admission decision would not be affected by any discipline rendered by their high schools for participating in "peaceful" protests calling for more stringent gun control.

"UConn would like to assure students who have applied or been admitted to the University that disciplinary action associated with participation in peaceful protests will not affect your admission decision in any way," UConn officials said in a message posted on Twitter Friday evening.

Protests have sprung up or are being planned throughout the country.

A Women's March/National School Walkout is being organized for 17 minutes at 10 a.m. "across every time zone" 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 neighborhoods. We need action. Students and allies are organizing the national school walkout to demand Congress pass legislation to keep us safe from gun violence at our schools, on our streets and in our homes and places of worship." The duration symbolizes the Florida killings.

The Network for Public Education, an advocacy organization for public schools founded in 2013, has announced a "national day of action" on April 20. That's the the anniversary of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, in which a dozen students and a teacher were killed when two students went on a shooting spree.

Photo Credit: Chris Dehnel