Students at dozens of Utah high schools were expected to walk out of class Friday, in a second national display of solidarity over school safety issues raised by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings in February in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people.
Friday’s planned walkouts — scheduled for at least 15 schools in Salt Lake County alone — also marks the 19th anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, when two students shot and killed 12 classmates and a teacher.
More than 2,000 students are expected to join in Utah School Walkout, which organizers said would culminate in a gathering on Capitol Hill, with speeches, discussions with legislators, a voter-registration drive and a six-minute “die-in,” echoing the duration of the Parkland massacre.