Local students participate in National School Walkout to protest gun violence

HOUSTON – Friday marked the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre.

Thousands of students across the nation participated in the National School Walkout, to remember those killed in school shootings and to demand gun reform. 

“We had the March for Our Lives and after that people would assume this would die down and go away. It’s not, we’re here and we’re not going to stop,” said Paolo Martinez, a senior at the High School for Performing and Visual Arts. “I think this new sense of activism is not going to stop.” 

Martinez, along with other students in Houston Independent School District, organized the Houston Youth Walkout, in which they marched from Wiley Park to City Hall. 

Some students performed interpretive dances and others spoke. Politicians like U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee were at the rally, where state Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston) and Mayor Pro Tem Ellen Cohen spoke.

After hearing the chants, Mayor Sylvester Turner walked out of City Hall and spoke unexpectedly to the crowd of students.  He told them he heard them from inside, and he’s proud of them for standing up for what they believe.

“I would prefer for them to stay in school, but if adults and people in position in power don’t take action to make their lives safer, to take this issue away so they don’t have to be concerned with it, then we need to stand with them, and that’s where I am here,” Turner said. 

Along with the march, student organizers also had booths set up around City Hall so juniors and seniors could register to vote. 

“It really touches you because it’s so sad. People lose people they love and it still keeps going on and nothing gets done about it,” said Marlen Serrano, who is about to turn 18. “Therefore, my voice can be heard, and if it’s not here, it can be through my vote.”

“I don’t think many people understand what it’s like to go through a lockdown drill as a student; especially with younger kids, it’s very frightening,” Martinez said. “Today there was another school shooting in Florida, so it proves our point: enough is enough. We’re here for our education, we’re not here to live in fear.”

Students at Elsik High School also participated in the National School Walkout. 

"What we're doing is we're spelling out Elsik Remembers so we can remember everyday bullying and school violence, and just being a decent person is what we need to be living life like,” said Hannah Caten, a chemistry teacher at Elsik High School.

She had her students write the names of all the victims killed in school shootings since Columbine on the bottom of cups and had them arrange the cups on a fence to spell out “Elsik Remembers.”