Mooresville Students Join National Walkout Against Gun Violence

MOORESVILLE, NC — One month to the day after 17 people were killed in a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, high school students acros the country walked out of their classrooms in a coordinated national demonstration calling for stronger gun laws.

The class walk-out included Mooresville High School students, who left their classrooms Wednesday morning and filed into the school’s gym in a show of solidarity. They took pen to paper and wrote letters to students at the Parkland school, and to law makers expressing their ideas to reform gun laws and make schools safer.

“Mooresville Graded School District is proud of our students and how they have chosen to unite together to address the issue of school safety in a thoughtful way,” the school district’s spokesperson, Tanae Sump-McLean, told Patch in a statement.

Thousands of students were expected to take part in the walkout on Wednesday as an effort to advocate for stricter gun laws. The March 14 walkout, which coincided with the National School Walkout day, was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. at sites across the country, according to the main campaign website, however students in some cities, such as Washington, D.C. and New York City, left school for the entire day to participate in larger-scale demonstrations.

SEE ALSO: Charlotte-Area Schools Join National Walkout Against Gun Violence

Plans for Wednesday’s event in Mooresville came to fruition after the tragedy in Florida last month and when students at the school approached their principal, Eric Schwarzenegger, about their desire to participate in the national event.

"They felt the urge to do something," Schwarzenegger said. "They see this as obviously a national issue and also a personal one because they attend school everyday."

Schwarzenegger organized a meeting for students interested in organizing an event, and 70 showed up, he told Mooresville Patch. The meeting produced a plan for students to walk out of class, head to the school's gym and spend 17 minutes writing letters, to victims in Florida or elected officials so they can share their ideas on how to improve school safety.

This is an act of solidarity with students in Florida, and an act of civic engagement, Schwarzenegger said.

Unlike many other school walkouts, however, students stayed inside the building. Mooresville Graded School District did not allowing media access to the school to observe the event.

The walk out on the 14th is just one of several ideas MHS students came up with, Schwarzenegger said. Other ideas include a voter registration drive at the school and selling T-shirts and bracelets to financially support student victims in Parkland.

"I remember being in high school when Columbine happened," Schwarzenegger said. "A school is a place where I work everyday," alongside school staff, he said. "In a way, we are all in this together."

Patch Editor Kristal Dixon contributed

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Photos courtesy of Mooresville Graded School District