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Here's why students are walking out of schools en masse today

At 10 a.m. today, students across the east coast got up and walked out of their schools. Why? This is just one of the ways teens are making their voices heard and calling for stricter gun control after a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla. killed 17 one month ago today.

The offical title of today's demonstration is the National School Walkout. According to CNN, over 3,000 schools will participate in the event at 10 a.m. in each time zone and students will stay outside for 17 minutes, one minute for each person lost in last month's tragedy.

The walkout was organized by the Women's March as a way to say #Enough. "We demand that Congress enact an immediate resolution declaring gun violence a public health crisis and dedicating federal funding to research solutions and implement violence intervention programs," the Women's March website states. "We demand Congress recognize all forms of gun violence, including violence committed by police."

The site also lists the legislation the walkout supports, such as banning assault weapons, requiring universal background checks before gun sales and pass a gun violence restraining order law. (You can read more about the legislation the walkout supports and doesn't support here.)

This isn't the first time students are speaking up about the tragedy and demanding change. In the days following the shooting, survivors spoke at rallies, visited statehouses, held a town hall with members of Congress on CNN and haven't stopped tweeting about the tragic event since it happened.

The survivors have also planned March for Our Lives on March 24 in Washington D.C. (and cities across the nation) as another way "to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and that we end gun violence and mass shootings in our schools today," says the march's website.

Did you/will you participate in the National School Walkout today? Do you support stricter gun control? Share your thoughts in our Instagram comments here.

Photo: CNN

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by Sydney Adamson | 3/14/2018
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