Metro Detroit Students To Stage Walkouts In Memory Of Columbine

METRO DETROIT, MI — Students will again come to the forefront of the gun control debate with another walkout planned Friday morning, this time to mark the 19th anniversary of a shooting in Columbine High School in Colorado that left 15 people dead.

Communities all across Metro Detroit will take part, including at high schools in Dearborn, Troy, Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills. This event follows the March For Our Lives demonstrations that brought thousands together last month.

In Royal Oak, a community rally will be held at the Farmers Market April 20 to speak out on gun law reform. U.S. Rep. Sander Levin will be among the attendees at the event.

“I am proud to stand with these passionate young Americans who continue to demand action on gun violence,” Levin said in a statement. “I have had the privilege of meeting and talking with many of these students in Michigan and in Washington, and know for them the stakes are real and they are life-changing.”

In Farmington, hundreds are expected to turn out to the student-led walkout at Orchard United Methodist Church. Organizer Lily Kollin, a student at North Farmington High School and president of the Farmington Public Schools Students Demand Action chapter, said they have invited politicians, political leaders, mental health professionals, educators and community leaders to speak out in their town hall-format event. Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence and NRA member and attorney Jim Makowski are some of the slated speakers.

"Since I was a little kid I've had nightmares about school shootings," said Kollin, 17. "I have grown up in the shadow of gun violence and never once seen legislative action taken to prevent further massacres. Enough is enough. I refuse to let our country go numb to the news of another shooting.If the leaders of our country don't hear our chants for change yet, then we will ensure they will come midterms."

The official goals of the National School Walkout are to engaged students in the political system, promote solutions to gun violence and hold elected officials accountable.

At Columbine, two teens went on a shooting spree on April 20, 1999, killing 13 people and wounding more than 20 others before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide. The Columbine shooting was, at the time, the worst high school shooting in U.S. history.

That spot was claimed by the Virginia Tech killings in April 2007, when a 23-year-old student went on a shooting spree killing 32 people, before killing himself.

Seventeen people were killed in February’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, located in south Florida.

Image via Shutterstock

Stay with Patch Friday for coverage of Metro Detroit's walkouts.