EVERGREEN, Colo. — Students across the Denver metro area will make their voices heard by participating in walkouts Wednesday to take a stance against gun violence and to stand in support with the Evergreen community.
The walkouts come one week after the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office responded to a shooting at Evergreen High school that critically injured two students and left the suspect dead after officials said he turned the gun on himself.
Denver7 heard from students at Legacy High School in Broomfield, McAuliffe International School in Denver, Conifer High School, and Mountain Vista High School in Highlands Ranch about demonstrations they were planning.
Organizers of the walkout happening at Mountain Vista High School said, in addition to standing in solidarity with the Evergreen community, one of the critical messages they want to send is that no student should be afraid to go to school.
“The main reason that it matters, that we do something now and we make ourselves heard, is that it's evident nothing's going to change if we don't,” Braeden Kieffer, a junior at Mountain Vista High School and one of the co-organizers of Wednesday’s walkout, said. “If we put our voice out there, we can make sure that we can go to school without living in fear, and that we are able to ensure that this very preventable issue doesn't continue to claim the lives of students and traumatize 10s of 1,000s over several years.”
Kieffer emphasized that gun violence affects everyone.
“Gun violence in schools is something that affects everyone, regardless of their ideology, regardless of their beliefs, regardless of where they are, who they are, and that's what we want to emphasize with this walkout,” Kieffer said.
Mia Castellano and Evan Dada are also juniors at Mountain Vista High School and co-organizers of the walkout.
“No child deserves to live with the trauma of living through a school shooting. No child should have to fear going to school because of a very preventable issue,” Castellano said.
“I also believe it's more than just about students too. These are parents' children that are in danger of being hurt, being killed,” Dada added.
Both Castellano and Dada shared how their parents were directly involved in tragedies themselves.
Castellano said her mother was a senior at Columbine during the tragedy in 1999, and Dada said his mother helped evacuate students during the STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting.
“She was in there, and she now has to live with that trauma for the rest of her life, and she shouldn't have to worry about me and my sister living through a similar trauma to hers, because nobody's doing anything to prevent gun violence,” Castellano emphasized.
Dada added that his mother “knows the feeling and the look of terror on both students and adults faces when they found out, like several of their friends or that several of their kids were injured or even killed.”
The walkouts at the various schools start at different times. Mountain Vista’s walkout starts at 12:24 p.m. Wednesday — the same time the first Jefferson County Deputy was dispatched to Evergreen last week.
Students Demand Action will also be hosting a rally at the Colorado Capitol Wednesday morning in support of the Evergreen community.
They'll be joined by state representatives and plan to address the impacts of gun violence.
