Hundreds of Georgia students walked out of class Friday morning to have moments of silence for the victims of the Apalachee High School shooting and to pressure state leaders to do more to curb gun violence in the state.
The walkouts come less than three weeks after police say a 14-year-old Apalachee High student shot and killed two students and two teachers at the Barrow County school. Apalachee High students are scheduled to return to class for the first time next week.
Walkout organizers said students from more than 30 schools were participating. A rally was scheduled for Friday afternoon at J.B. Williams Park in Gwinnett County.
Students want state leaders to pass legislation such as the Pediatric Health Safe Storage Act, which would penalize those who make guns accessible to children. Democratic state Rep. Michelle Au of Johns Creek introduced the legislation in 2023, but it never received a vote. Yana Batra, a Georgia Tech student who helped organized Friday’s walkout, said the legislation would “save lives here in Georgia.”
“We’re calling on Gov. Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones to support that bill and to take the action that our students and communities deserve,” Batra said on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast Friday.
Batra is a member of the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition, a politically active group of college and high school students that lobbies lawmakers. Maynard Jackson High School freshman Maya Flowers-Glass, also a member of the coalition, teamed with her school’s government association to plan the school’s walkout Friday.
Scores of students walked along the school’s entrance shortly after 10 a.m. when the walkout was scheduled to begin.
“The students at Maynard … know how terrible it has been living through the last couple of weeks, and everybody is very ready to take action,” she said.
She pointed out that when violent incidents occur in schools, officials typically respond by installing metal detectors and assigning more officers to patrol school campuses. To her, that’s not a solution.
“We’re here to say that more police officers and more metal detectors will never be enough to stop school shootings,” she said. “We need gun policy reform.”
Specifically, she thinks gun owners should be required by law to safely store their weapons. She is also distressed by the recent threats some metro Atlanta school districts, including hers, have received.
“I just think (school shootings are) something that a teenager should never have to reckon with,” she said. “I should never have to double-check that I said goodbye to my parents every morning and said I love them because of the fears I might not return from school.”
At Jackson High, school staff provided a time slot and a location for the walkout. But in several other districts and schools, students faced potential disciplinary consequences for participating.
The Cobb County School District sent a message to students threatening suspension “at a minimum” for participating in disruptions to school. Decatur High School said in a message Wednesday that students could face similar consequences for participating. Officials there urged students not to walk out of class but to instead organize a vigil, contact elected officials, engage in community service or create an awareness campaign about gun violence and preventive measures. Some students walked toward the football field around 11 a.m.
Friday’s demonstrations were student-led, with several organizations offering support: Georgia Youth Justice Coalition, Change for Chee (a community organization in Barrow County) and March For Our Lives, an organization founded in the wake of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people. A walkout occurred in Georgia after that mass shooting.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
