Hundreds of high school students walkout on Gun Violence Awareness Day in Long Beach

Hundreds of students at a pair of Long Beach high schools took part in a walkout as part of a nationwide trend seen in schools across America Friday.

In correspondence with Gun Violence Awareness Day and just days after the tragic mass shooting at an Uvalde, Tex. elementary school, Woodrow Wilson High School students gathered in their campus' courtyards Friday morning to protest gun violence and call for stricter gun control. 

"Are we the future? Or are we next?" read a sign displayed to the student body from a table in the courtyard.

Dozens of students wearing white shirts that read "Am I Next?" stood in formation, as the rest of the student boy standing across from them joined, holding signs which read phrases like "Together We Can End Gun Violence," "Guns Kill" and "Save Lives Not Guns."

Across town, students at Long Beach Polytechnic High School gathered in a similar manner. Hundreds of members of their student body were could be seen in the courtyard on campus, where several students spoke to the growing crowd.

Students there were also wearing shirts and holding signs that relayed similar messages to their counterparts at WHS.

These students join the throngs of others across the nation protesting gun violence in the wake of a recent string of mass shootings, including Miguel Contreras Learning Complex students who marched to L.A. City Hall on Tuesday, and Saugus High School and El Camino Real Charter School on May 26.