OXFORD, Mich. (AP) — Hundreds of students at Oxford High School, the Michigan school where four were killed in November, walked out Thursday and formed a ‘U’ on the football field to show support for students and families in Uvalde, Texas.
“We went through the same thing. I lost a lot of friends. I thought it would be respectful to help other people through it,” sophomore Andrew Sholtz told The Detroit News.
A gunman killed 19 children and two teachers this week at Robb Elementary School in Texas.
Oxford school officials knew a walkout was planned and worked to ensure students would be safe, spokeswoman Danielle Stublensky said.
She said it was part of a national effort by Students Demand Action, a group calling for changes in gun laws.
“As a community, our hearts are with Uvalde and we understand why some of our students chose to participate in the national walkout,” Stublensky said.
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder in the Oxford school shooting. His parents have been charged with involuntary manslaughter under a theory that they made a gun accessible to Ethan Crumbley and failed to respond to signs of mental distress.
This table shows school shootings since 2007 that killed more than four people. The massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas would mark the 11th such shooting.
The deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas is just the latest in a long history of senseless school shootings in the U.S. The following map shows the locations of some of the most deadly school shootings in U.S. history.