Washington-Lee High Students Walk Out (Video)

ARLINGTON, VA -- A cold wind whipped across the football field at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington on Wednesday as hundreds of students braved temperatures in the 30s to remember the 17 students gunned down in Florida exactly one month ago.

At 10 a.m., students filed out of the school and gathered in the center of the field, listening quietly as the name of each victim was read over a loudspeaker, along with a story about that life followed by a somber moment of silence to remember it. (Video of the entire event is embedded at the bottom of this post.)

Police arrested Nikolas Cruz after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. on Feb. 14. The fact that he was armed with an AR-15 touched off a national gun control debate that still rages, and is likely to continue to rage for a while.

Washington-Lee was just one of countless others across the nation participating in the National Walkout Day. And it is an appetizer for the main event just a few miles away: the March For Our Lives on March 24, which promises to be a massive event drawing half a million people.

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A few adults who watched the vigil at Washington-Lee held some political signs, like "Disarm Hate," as well as a sign by a veteran who said he supports the 2nd amendment but also believes in gun control.

However, Washington-Lee teacher Chrissy Steury, who helped organize the vigil, said they didn't want it to be a political event.

"We united a bunch of different groups at our school," she told Patch following the vigil. "We got together ... Democrats, the Young Republicans, the Black Lives Matter club, the SCA [Student Conservation Association] -- and somebody needed to kind of lead the charge. So we all joined together and just decided that the united front was going to be non-violence."

Image: Patch staff