At Hightstown High School in Central New Jersey, kids started filing out of classes at 9:45 a.m as part of a nationwide walkout to protest gun violence. Hundreds walked the track to stay warm until all the students were gathered outside.
At 10 a.m. exactly, a student called the first name — that of 14-year old Alyssa Alhadeff, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who was killed in the Florida shooting; it echoed from a microphone over the cold, snow-patched sports field.
Maggie Keller, a junior at Hightstown, said she felt overwhelmed as an empty chair was placed on the field to honor each victim.
“It made it feel so real,” she said.
Like many other schools, officials closed the event off to the public, saying they had a closed campus. Some cited safety concerns.
In New York City, dozens of students streamed out of the doors of the Bronx Academy of Software Engineering in the Belmont neighborhood as nearby church bells rung out 10 a.m. After sharing a brief moment of silence, dozens of students marched more than a half-mile to the New York City Department of Education District office, where they called for more investment in guidance counselors and restorative justice programs instead of metal detectors and school safety agents.
Sophomore Frankie Garland-Kelly, who uses the pronouns they/them, helped organize the walkout at their school. They said more kids left class than they anticipated, despite resistance from teachers and administrators.
"We're doing an amazing thing. Walking out of school when the principal is saying, you legally cannot do that? It's like, legally, you're not supposed to shoot kids, but people still do that," said Garland-Kelly.
Bryan Aju, 16, another organizer said it was partly inspired by Mayor Bill de Blasio's recent town hall on school safety, which Aju said failed to address his mistrust of school safety agents.
"We're gonna continue fighting for what we want, we're gonna continue asking and protesting and chanting for what we want, and if we don't get it we're going to continue," Aju said.
Meanwhile, at Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, the mayor praised students for standing up and walking out.
"You are making so clear to this whole country that you are sick of the violence. You are sick of the madness. You are sick of the slaughter, and you won’t stand for it," de Blasio said.
The city Department of Education says middle and high school students who cut class for 17 minutes won’t be disciplined as long as they have their parent’s permission.
At the same time, students in Bridgeport, Conn., were joined by their principal, superintendent, and mayor during a walkout at Warren G. Harding High School.
At 10 a.m., the group gathered around the goal posts on the school’s football field. An organizer asked students how many had lost someone to gun violence. More than half the hands went up.
Updated on March 3 2018: This article has been updated to correct the misgendering of one of the student organizers. Frankie Garland-Kelly's pronouns are they/them, not she/her.