Kansas City students rally for gun control on Columbine shooting anniversary

On Friday — the 19th anniversary of the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. — hundreds of students in the Kansas City area participated in school walkouts and student-planned rallies to honor the victims of gun violence and call for gun control.

At least 2,700 National School Walkout Day events across the country called attention to political inaction when it comes to gun safety.

Across the metropolitan area, schools worked with students to plan optional protests on football fields and gymnasiums. Some observed 13 seconds of silence that were meant to honor the 13 victims in the Columbine shooting, while others observed moments of silence for the victims of the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland, Fla.

But a Connecticut high school sophomore who had originally organized the walkout day through a Change.org petition, as well as other national organizers, had called for a day of action.

In Kansas City, students and supporters gathered at 11:30 a.m. at Gillham Park in the Hyde Park neighborhood for a student-led rally.

They wore the color orange as part of a national movement for legislative changes to gun laws. They read the name of each Columbine student killed in the 1999 shooting.

Across the country, students recognized the walkout day in different ways. In New York City, students gathered at Washington Square Park to hold a "die-in," a protest in which students lay on the ground as if they were dead. In Washington D.C. students staged a vigil outside the White House.

In Ocala, Fla., a scheduled walkout never occurred — a man shot a student before the event began, prompting a lockdown

Friday's Kansas City rally, which included student speeches, poems and musical performances, coincided with what is the second National Student Walkout Day since the killing of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Erin Gingrich-Gaylord, a group leader for the Kansas City chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense who attended the rally, said she was inspired by the "passion and consistency" that students had demonstrated.

"I feel almost embarrassed to be an adult, that our children have to take this on," said Gingrich-Gaylord who was in high school when the Columbine shooting occurred.

Later, addressing the rally, Gingrich-Gaylord told students their fight "is on the right side of history and when you look back on this time, I want you to feel incredibly proud that you walked out, and stood strong to end gun violence."

She apologized for not standing up 19 years ago. "But I am here now and I promise to keep showing up to the fight..."

The February high school shooting and the students who survived it set off a national movement that included last month's "March For Our Lives," in which thousands of students and adult supporters across the U.S. and around the world protested a lack of broad gun control legislation.

Student activists have been calling for safer schools and what they have called "sensible gun laws," since the Valentine's Day shooting in Parkland.

Turnout for Friday's walkout day seemed to be smaller than previous protests across the country, according to The Washington Post. About 250 people attended the Kansas City rally. And many students, including those in Parkland, opted to stay in school or participate in campus events.

But student organizers of Friday's rally said they remain as determined as ever to continue their national movement, calling for expanding background checks on gun purchases, curbing the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines, and placing new limits on military-style assault rifles, such as the AR-15 used by a 19-year-old gunman to kill students and teachers at Stoneman Douglas High.

Delivering a poem she wrote, Erin Lowe, an 18-year-old Pembroke Hill student, spoke for many in the crowd: " We are all here today because a lack of action does nothing but further the economic interests of a particular faction and our reactions is that of defiance... never silence."

Students read a letter sent by Kansas City Mayor Sly James, telling them he was proud of them "for persisting in this effort to make your schools and by extension our cities, safer by demanding common sense gun laws."

Fran Sheehan of Lenexa thought about her grandsons born in 2000, a year after Columbine, as she listened to students rattle off gun violence statistics.

"My grandsons have lived their entire lives in the shadow of school shootings," Sheehan said. "This is only the second time I have ever taken to the streets. The first was for a pro-life rally more than 10 years go,. But I guess this is pro life too."

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, joined students and from the podium encouraged them not to get discouraged. "Change is brought about by young people," he said.

He reminded them about the young men and women who with Martin Luther King Jr. marched for civil rights and were told they were stirring up trouble.

Pointing at the students, Cleaver shouted, "Trouble makers. But good trouble."

He told them 18 is "the magic number," when they are old enough to vote. He called arguments that the student gun control demands infringe on Second Amendment rights "a false equivalent."

"There is nothing about this movement that jeopardizes the Second Amendment; this is all about sensible gun laws."

Students said their next steps, after proms next week, will be to organize lobbying trips to Topeka and Jefferson City.

Here's how some local groups recognized the National School Walkout Day:

In Blue Valley, students organized school walkouts and a 'Never Again' march at the Church of the Resurrection scheduled for Friday afternoon.

Some students in the Shawnee Mission School District also planned protests at their schools. Schools provided support and supervision to those who wanted to participate.

"While these events are not endorsed by the school or staff, we respect the way our students have approached this opportunity by collaborating with their school administrators to create a mutually agreed-upon plan," a district statement read.

At Olathe Northwest, students gathered in a circle for the National School Walkout Day. At Olathe North, students interested in protesting were permitted to leave class at 9 a.m. to honor the victims of the Parkland shooting.

At Olathe East, a student told her classmates that protests had the power to "change the course of history."

At Hocker Grove Middle School, students gathered in a courtyard.

Students at Crossroads Charter Schools marched to City Hall.

This story was originally published April 20, 2018 at 10:42 AM with the headline "Kansas City students rally for gun control on Columbine shooting anniversary."