Local students are among those participating in a nationwide walkout to protest gun violence on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.
Students at the Commonwealth School in Boston took part in the walkout, gathering at the Commonwealth Avenue Mall on Friday and encouraging others to speak with legislators about gun control.
"We can't keep having these shootings," student organizer Alan Plotz said. "We need to do something about it."
Other area schools, including Harvard and Bridgewater State universities, also participated in Friday's walkout.
Friday's walkouts follow a wave of youth activism that has emerged after the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Tens of thousands of students left class March 14 to protest gun violence in what historians called the largest youth protest movement since at least the Vietnam War. Days later, hundreds of thousands of teens and their backers rallied across the U.S. calling for tougher laws on guns and ammunition.
