Students plan to walkout in peaceful protest against gun violence on Thursday, March 8, honoring the 17 lives lost in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida three weeks ago. The walkout will take place at 10 a.m. during second block.

Five minutes before the walkout begins, students will silently leave class and congregate in front of the school with posters against gun violence. Starting at 10 a.m., one person will step forward for each of the 17 people who died, dropping a rose and reading the person’s name with details about his or her life. Senior Claire Boone will give a speech to close the event and students will then go back to their second block class.

The building administration is aware of the walkout and will not penalize students for participating as long as they return to class promptly.

For freshman Ellie Boone, the walkout is an important thing to be a part of given the increased backlash against gun violence in schools, especially with Parkland.

“There’s been so many school shootings and it’s important for us, as students, to reach out and show that this is not OK and we want to do something about it,” Ellie said. “I think it’s a great way to show that and have our voices be heard.”

Similarly, junior Jacob Hoffman believes the walkout will provide a time for students to share their concern.

“I wanted to be involved with something that I believed in to get the message out that we need to do something about gun violence and to remember the victims,” Hoffman said.

Although the date has no significance, it was chosen with the cooperation of students at De Soto High School also planning a walkout, and Ellie said this was purposeful.

“Since we’re a unified school district, we wanted to do it together,” Ellie said.

Hoffman said that ultimately, the purpose of the walkout is to incite change for how gun violence is approached at a state and national level.

“It’s to honor the victims first, and then to get lawmakers’ attention; we need to unite and do something to fix the problem.”