Whitefish Bay HS Students Hold Walkout After Texas Shooting: Reports

Whitefish Bay WI

26 May, 2022

12:33 PM

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WHITEFISH BAY, WI — Students at Whitefish Bay High School held a walkout Thursday morning in protest against gun violence, FOX 6 News and other outlets reported. The walkout comes just days after a gunman killed 19 children and two staff members at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed to multiple outlets. Streams on Facebook from CBS 58 and WISN 12 around 11:30 a.m. Thursday appeared to show students gathering at the high school's football field. Mariella Boudreau, a senior at Whitefish Bay High School who took part in the walkout, said "We as a generation are typically the ones most affected by this issue, but we have the least say when it comes to impacting legislation and our representatives," CBS 58 and WISN 12 reported. "We are not helpless. We are not hopeless. We have voices," Boudreau said in the reports. The walkout was part of a nationwide campaign organized by Students Demand Action, TMJ4 reported. The organization encouraged students across the U.S. to walk out on Thursday. In its website, Students Demand Action described the protest as a time for grieving with the Uvalde community and demanding action from lawmakers. Schools in America have seen 27 shootings in 2022, according to Education Week's tracker. The mass shooting in Uvalde comes just weeks after a gunman killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on May 14 in an attack the state's Gov. Kathy Hochul called a hate crime, AP reported. The mass shooting in Uvalde comes just weeks after an apparent shootout in downtown Milwaukee on May 13 left 17 people injured, including some who Milwaukee police later took into custody, the agency said. Three men have since been charged in connection with the downtown shooting.