OPRF Student Walkout: 'We Hope To Open As Many Eyes As Possible'

OAK PARK, IL — Students at Oak Park-River Forest High School joined students in more than 3,000 schools across the nation by wordlessly walking out of class Wednesday morning to commemorate the Parkland, Florida shooting. For 17 minutes, the teens stood in silence, a minute-long vigil for each of the 17 people who lost their lives when a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The walkout comes exactly a month after the shooting as teens throughout America are using their voices in a unified cry against current gun laws.

A week after the Parkland shooting, thousands of students walked out of Oak Park-River Forest High School in protest. They spent weeks organizing the March 14 walkout and making signs ahead of the event.

On Wednesday, students carried their signs as they walked out and stood solemnly on the school's football field in a staggering show of solidarity.

For senior Lauren Flowers and many students in the Chicago area, the walkout is also a way to speak out against gun violence in Chicago. Flowers, who helped organize Wednesday's demonstration, said, she feels "very passionately about how we must remember those who are affected by Chicago gun violence in the same way we remember the victims of mass shootings."

She added, "We hope that this will open as many eyes as possible so that our nation will fight for change in underrepresented areas the same way we fight for change in more affluent areas."

>>>Image courtesy of Lauren Flowers