Smaller Turnout Expected For Next National Student Walkout

click to expand

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- With another nationwide student walkout scheduled for Friday, many school districts are less wiling to allow students to participate.

There are school walkouts planned in all 50 states totaling up to more than 2,000 nationwide. The date, April 20, marks the 19th anniversary of the deadly Columbine school shooting. Two students shot and killed 12 classmates and a teacher. The walkout in March was held on the one-month anniversary of the Parkland, Florida school shooting that left 17 dead.

Columbine High School will not be participating in the walkout because they are not scheduled to have classes today. Every year since the shooting the school has canceled class and held service projects instead as a way to honor the lives lost.

According to their website, walkout organizers say this is a "launch of a forward looking youth movement that has a strategy, a plan for action, and isn't going away."

According to our media partners at The Baltimore Sun, local schools are prepared for walkouts but haven't heard as much about this month's as they did in March. Some believe the walkouts are becoming too political in nature.

Carroll County School Board Superintendent Stephen Guthrie says the upcoming protest is "detrimental" and "not acceptable." School systems like Baltimore County tell WJZ they want the walkout to remain on campus, while others like Howard County have yet to take a stance.

The Baltimore Sun reports Baltimore City Public Schools are encouraging principals to designate a specific space and time for students to discuss gun violence, and Howard County officials are requiring any activities be done in "a safe and responsible manner and with limited disruption to the academic day."

Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook