Towson Students Plan Walkouts On March 14

TOWSON, MD — Students from Loch Raven High School and Carver Center for Technology are planning to join a national movement this week protesting recent gun violence in schools and calling for stricter laws. Students will walk out of class starting at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 14.

The walkout events are planned across the country after 17 students and staff were killed and numerous people injured in the Valentine's Day massacre in Parkland, Florida.

Students participating in the national walkout on March 14 will leave their classrooms for 17 minutes – one minute for each life taken at the school on Feb. 14, according to organizers.

"Students and staff have the right to teach and learn in an environment free from the worry of being gunned down in their classrooms or on their way home from school," organizers say. "Parents have the right to send their kids to school in the mornings and see them home alive at the end of the day. We are not safe at school."

Say organizers: "Congress must take meaningful action to keep us safe and pass federal gun reform legislation that address the public health crisis of gun violence."

Schools across the nation have been on high alert since the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School resulted in 17 killed and more than a dozen others injured in Parkland, Florida.

You can find a full list of schools participating in the national walkout here, occurring a month after the Florida school shooting. Walkouts are planned in Baltimore County at Carver Center for Arts and Technology, Catonsville High School, CCBC - Catonsville, Chesapeake High School, Common Ground Community Center, Franklin High School, Loch Raven High School, Perry Hall High School and Towson High School.

Gun violence is a concern at Loch Raven High School, where police said a boy with a pellet gun drew the SWAT team to campus last month.

SEE ALSO:

• Loch Raven Student Arrested, Pellet Gun Found
• Teen Charged With Having Weapon At Perry Hall High School

— By Patch editors Elizabeth Janney and Kara Seymour

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 21: Students participate in a protest against gun violence February 21, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Hundreds of students from a number of Maryland and DC schools walked out of their classrooms and made a trip to the U.S. Capitol and the White House to call for gun legislation, one week after 17 were killed in the latest mass school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)