The national group behind the walkouts, the youth branch of the Women’s March, said it expected roughly 2,850 walkouts in schools across the country Wednesday. | Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo Thousands of students march on the White House to call for better gun control

Thousands of students and teachers marched Wednesday in Washington, D.C., and across the nation as they left school to call for stricter gun control measures, while the House passed its first school safety bill since the massacre in Parkland, Florida.

The actions came on the one-month anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.


Hundreds of students gathered at the White House, bearing signs and chanting for tighter gun control laws. They then walked to the U.S. Capitol, where they were greeted by members of Congress who back their cause.

The students criticized the Trump administration’s response to the shooting by turning their backs to the White House for 17 minutes — one for each of the students and staff members killed in Parkland. Marches also took place in Louisville, Kentucky; New York; Boston; Chicago; Baltimore; Littleton, Colorado; and Jacksonville, Florida. At hundreds of schools, students demonstrated by walking out onto football fields and lawns.

President Donald Trump has asked the federal government to assist states in training school staff to carry guns. The White House has also announced a package of other school violence prevention proposals. After initially suggesting he would support raising the age to 21 to buy AR-15 rifles, Trump walked back that proposal.

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With strong bipartisan support, the House voted 407-10 to pass the STOP School Violence Act, H.R. 4909 (115), which will repurpose a program focused on school violence prevention for grants administered by the Department of Justice to fund training and other initiatives intended to enhance school safety, including physical improvements such as metal detectors, stronger locks, and emergency notification and response technologies for schools to notify law enforcement of emergencies. Trump said in a statement he would sign the bill. The bill would authorize $75 million a year for the effort, according to the text.

In the Senate, Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said he’s introducing legislation to provide funding for “cutting-edge research into the prevention of school violence.” The Iowa Republican said the bill would support that research through the Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center.

But Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) raised questions about the Trump response plan, saying the administration’s backing for training and arming school staff could endanger students, particularly African-American and Hispanic students.

Outside on the Capitol lawn, students from area schools and members of Congress spoke against the administration’s proposal. “We will not sit in classrooms with armed teachers. We will not learn in fear,” said Matt Post, a high school student from Montgomery County, Maryland.

At the White House, Farah Patmah, 17, of Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville, Maryland, brought a sign that read, “Protect kids, not guns.”

“Too many kids have died. We hope to have our voices heard. We have become the target, and we need this to stop,” she said.

Jessica Bowen, 16, and Madison Steffes, 15, came from Potomac, Maryland, to advocate for “safer schools and gun reform.”

They said their school, Winston Churchill High, was supportive of student participation in the walkout and had asked teachers not to administer tests.

“We want gun reform so that we can feel safe at school, and other students can too,” Bowen said.

Homemade signs also spoke to students‘ desire to feel safer at school.

One read, “I’m not afraid of an unexcused absence. I’m afraid for my life.” Another read, “Classrooms not war zones.”

While some school districts encouraged the walkout, others said participating students would be disciplined. The American Civil Liberties Union reached out to districts ahead of Wednesday to communicate the students’ right to demonstrate and encouraging educators to incorporate lessons about civic engagement.

The national group behind the walkouts, the youth branch of the Women’s March, said it expected about 2,850 walkouts in schools across the country Wednesday.

The walkouts occurred 10 days before the “March for Our Lives,” a rally to be held in Washington and other cities on March 24. The rally, organized by Parkland survivors with major contributions from celebrities, is expected to attract half a million people in D.C.

Some lawmakers, such as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, joined the students or showed their support on social media.

“The spirit of #NationalWalkoutDay is familiar: 55 years ago, thousands of children skipped school to protest segregation in the streets of Birmingham — a moment that forever changed the Civil Rights Movement. Let us remember which side was consigned to the dustbin of history,” tweeted Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). His tweet was accompanied by photos from Wednesday’s walkout and of Martin Luther King Jr.

On the Capitol lawn Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered support to the students, walking around the crowd to shake hands.

"Thank you for bringing urgency to this issue," Pelosi said. "You are creating a drumbeat across America."

Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) stepped outside the Capitol to encourage the students and were greeted with cheers.

“The time is now for all of us to stand up to the NRA and pass common-sense gun legislation,” Sanders said.

A spokeswoman for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says she “gives a lot of credit to the students who are raising their voices and demanding change. She hears them, and their input will be valuable as she convenes the Federal Commission on School Safety and works to find solutions to keeping all students safe at school.”

Caitlin Emma and Benjamin Wermund contributed to this report.

