"We won't put up with this:" Whitefish Bay High School participating in National School Walkout

WHITEFISH BAY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Students across the country are preparing to walk out of school Wednesday to honor the Parkland victims.

The protest is dividing the student body at one local high school in Whitefish Bay.

Potentially hundreds of students could walkout during class Wednesday for 17 minutes, a minute in honor of each victim in Parkland.

It's going to be part memorial, part call to political action and that is what's making some people uncomfortable.

"We won't put up with this. We have the right to be in school and learn safely," said Whitefish Bay High School Senior Samantha Hentzen.

Hentzen is an organizer of Wednesday's planned walk-out. She says she and possibly 400 classmates will head to the football field to honor the Parkland victims and talk about gun reform.

"If adult leadership isn't going to get us anywhere, then it's time that the grownups stepped back if you will, and it's time for the youth to lead," Hentzen said.

Noah Kirchner, a senior, won't be joining the walkout. "If it was only honoring the victims and promoting that discourse, I'd be there, but I didn't feel comfortable going without feeling like I'd be signing on to a very specific agenda," he said.

Perhaps, there's more common ground between what the students want out of the walkout than they realize. But come Wednesday, Hentzen will be out on the field. "Gun reform is what we need."

While Noah remains inside. "A lot of people in this student body felt that by walking out, we were promoting an agenda and that's not appropriate."

The school sent a letter to parents today saying parents will need to give written permission for their child to participate in the walk-out.

The event will be supervised.