Trevor Schnack speaks to students gathered at Long Beach city hall. More than a 100 students walked out of various high schools in Long Beach to protest gun violence and demand reformed gun laws. Students nationwide chose this date due to the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School. Long Beach April 20, 2018. Photo by Brittany Murray, Press Telegram/SCNG

Students pre-register to vote as they gathered at Long Beach city hall. More than a 100 students walked out of various high schools in Long Beach to protest gun violence and demand reformed gun laws. Students nationwide chose this date due to the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School. Long Beach April 20, 2018. Photo by Brittany Murray, Press Telegram/SCNG

Aujanae Lightfoot creates a poster as students gathered at Long Beach city hall. More than a 100 students walked out of various high schools in Long Beach to protest gun violence and demand reformed gun laws. Students nationwide chose this date due to the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School. Long Beach April 20, 2018. Photo by Brittany Murray, Press Telegram/SCNG

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Trace Fukuhara came to show support for students gathered at Long Beach city hall. More than a 100 students walked out of various high schools in Long Beach to protest gun violence and demand reformed gun laws. Students nationwide chose this date due to the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School. Long Beach April 20, 2018. Photo by Brittany Murray, Press Telegram/SCNG

Students sign posters as they gathered at Long Beach city hall. More than a 100 students walked out of various high schools in Long Beach to protest gun violence and demand reformed gun laws. Students nationwide chose this date due to the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School. Long Beach April 20, 2018. Photo by Brittany Murray, Press Telegram/SCNG



Seventeen students walked out of Millikan High School joining more than a 100 students from other high schools in Long Beach to protest gun violence and demand reformed gun laws. Students nationwide chose this date due to the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School. Long Beach April 20, 2018. Photo by Brittany Murray, Press Telegram/SCNG

More than a 100 students walked out of various high schools in Long Beach to protest gun violence and demand reformed gun laws. Students nationwide chose this date due to the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School. Long Beach April 20, 2018. Photo by Brittany Murray, Press Telegram/SCNG

More than a 100 students walked out of various high schools in Long Beach to protest gun violence and demand reformed gun laws. Students nationwide chose this date due to the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School. Long Beach April 20, 2018. Photo by Brittany Murray, Press Telegram/SCNG

More than a 100 students walked out of various high schools in Long Beach to protest gun violence and demand reformed gun laws. Students nationwide chose this date due to the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School. Long Beach April 20, 2018. Photo by Brittany Murray, Press Telegram/SCNG

More than a 100 students walked out of various high schools in Long Beach to protest gun violence and demand reformed gun laws. Students nationwide chose this date due to the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School. Long Beach April 20, 2018. Photo by Brittany Murray, Press Telegram/SCNG



These students are over walking out to the football field. This time, they went to city hall.

Roughly 100 students from at least four schools in the Long Beach Unified School District walked out of their classes on Friday and made their way to City Hall to protest gun violence on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting.

“What we’re doing here is one more step closer to change (rather) than staying at school where it will be an ‘acceptable forum,’” Josie Hahn, a Poly High School student, said in front of Long Beach City Hall.

“Because an acceptable forum is being complicit with school administration and even the government because they don’t want to lose money from our attendance — well, I don’t want to lose my life, so that’s why I’m here.”

They joined roughly 150,000 other students in more than 2,700 walkouts nationwide in the second student demonstration since March.

Friday’s action was planned by a Connecticut teenager, Lane Murdock, after a gunman stormed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14, leaving 17 people dead.

Students from Millikan, Lakewood, Poly, and others left their schools at different times in order to get to Long Beach City Hall by noon.

At Millikan, roughly 17 students walked out Friday morning at 10 a.m. and took public transportation to downtown Long Beach. The small crew was later joined at city hall in a flurry of high-fives and hugs by about 70 of their peers from Poly High School. Smaller groups from other schools joined too.

The walkout was much smaller this time — the March walkout brought thousands of students to the football fields of the high schools — in part because of transportation.

The Millikan students raised money through selling T-shirts to pay for bus passes to get them to city hall. Poly students walked the 2 miles from their school and other students drove or took the bus.

Some students who were planning to go were afraid to leave their classes — fear of the unexcused absence or missing important work made some of them stay, organizers said. But others came in spite of that fear.

“I was in my class and 10:45 came, which is the time (Poly students) had all agreed upon and nobody said anything, nobody got up,” Jasmine Baker said. “My hands were shaking … I really wanted to stand up but I was scared and then I thought about how scared (the Parkland) kids would’ve been and how just walking out the door could make a difference.”

For some LBUSD students, the walkout is more personal. Two girls, Patience Randall from Poly and Aujanae Lightfoot from Millikan, pointed out that one thing they had in common was that both their fathers died as a result of gun violence.

“I don’t want to see another little girl lose her dad who she barely got to meet,” Lightfoot said tearfully.

At the end of the rally, 13 students laid on the ground in honor of the students who were killed in Columbine.

“(The Florida shooting) really scared me and we have to speak,” Poly student Jadah Lee said. “My dad had mentioned one time, ‘Sometimes you just have to stay in a kids’ place.’ And to me, there’s no kids’ place, we all should speak out.”

Another issue was prevalent for the Millikan students: they just learned a week ago that the school district is cutting campus safety officer positions.

“That means less security for us,” said Blake Bayliss, one of the student organizers from Millikan. “Not only are we walking for gun violence and remembering Columbine, but were also marching out because we want make sure we can keep our (safety officers).”

The Millikan students plan to start a petition after the walkout to urge the school district to keep their safety officer, Beatrice Nieves, known as “Ms. B” to the students.