Florida school shooting: High school students and staff stage mass workout across the US

Students and school staff across the US are commemorating the Florida school shootings with a walkout, exactly one month after the killings. Pupils at the school, which was targeted by a former student, hugged each other on the football field. The students had stopped lessons for 17 minutes in memory of the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. But the protest organisers accuse Congress of failing to tackle gun violence.


Now, this week The White House revealed a plan to deter school shootings which does not include President Donald Trump's repeated calls to raise the age for buying semi-automatic rifles to 21. The walkouts began at 10 am in the eastern US (3 am NZT) and moved west across America's time zones. Schools taking part included Colorado's Columbine High School where 13 people were shot dead by two students in 1999.


Some students also gathered at Capitol Hill where they were addressed by the Senate and House Democratic leaders, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. "We're all moved by your eloquence and your fearless insistence on action to prevent gun violence," Ms. Pelosi told them. "Thank you for bringing your urgency to this fight, to the doorstep of America, the doorstep of the Capitol of the United States."