What is normally a sleepy school vacation week for most students in Massachusetts has been filled with activism as students respond to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, last week.

According to a WBUR tally, students at at least 40 middle and high schools from Eastham to Williamstown are planning to participate in a national school walkout on March 14.

"Every time there's just this cycle whenever there's a school shooting and no one really gets anything done," said Peyton Dauley, a 15-year-old sophomore at Mashpee High School, one of the schools participating in the March 14 walkout. "It's time for students to take charge and say, 'This is what I want.' "

Dauley said she has been aware of school shootings before, but the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 died, felt different.

"I saw these videos and it just kind of hit," she said, referencing cellphone footage students took as the shooting unfolded last Wednesday. "These kids are my age. That looks like my school. That could be me."

After seeing plans for a national student walkout circulating on social media, Dauley and her 16-year-old classmate Stella Bold decided they wanted to take action.

"Whenever I hear about [a school shooting], I always want to take charge, but I've never really thought about how to do it," Bold said. Then she heard about the national walkout. Over the past week, Bold and Dauley have been connecting via Snapchat with students from six other schools on the Cape, discussing the shooting, legislative action and school safety protocols.

"Ever since Sandy Hook and the shootings that followed up until Parkland, there's been a growing sense of hopelessness among students," said 17-year-old Falmouth High School senior Daniel Gessen. "It seems like nothing’s ever done. We talk thoughts and prayers, but nothing is ever changed."

But Gessen said he was inspired by watching students in Parkland step up to the microphone and advocate for change.

"Once the students got involved in Parkland, it really did feel different," he said. "If something's going to break that cycle, it is going to be the students speaking out and acting in ways that force their legislators to make a difference."