Thousands of Utah’s students walked out of class in a showing of support of the victims of the Parkland shooting one month ago. However, the message behind the walk out didn’t sit well with many other students.
Some students at Timpview High School in Provo say the walk out was supposed to be a moment for students to pay their respects to the victims of the Florida shooting. Instead, they say it was an anti-gun rally. “What the walkout should have been is honoring these 17 people who were killed in the Florida shooting. What it came out to be was a big anti-gun rally, which was not what some of my classmates were expecting,” according to student Steven Lakes, who decided not to participate.
He estimates roughly a thousand students also decided not to join in the walk out, and he claims some of his friends were unpleasantly surprised by what they heard when they walked out. “If the message was purely one of honoring the students, not having anything to do with gun control and tarnishing their memory with political opinions, then, yes, I would have totally went out,” he says.
He believes the gun control measures being discussed won’t work. “I don’t think it’s right to target one gun. I don’t think it’s effective,” he adds.
(Photo Credit: AP Photo/ Carolyn Kaster)