Tag: Laura Seitz

On a typical early Friday afternoon, Highland High School senior Carmen LeCluyse would still be in class — wrapping up her academic week and maybe thinking about some weekend R&R.

But for LeCluyse and scores of her Highland classmates — along with legions of youth across the nation — these are not typical days.

Last week, two children were killed and several more injured in a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. In 2025, there have been 44 school shootings in the United States, including 22 on K-12 school grounds, CNN reported.

LeCluyse and approximately 150 other Highland High students staged a walkout Friday to call for increased gun safety at schools.

After gathering outside the school entrance, the teen activists marched to neighboring Sugar House Park to stage their rally. More than a dozen students seized opportunities to climb atop a park bench and, with bullhorn in hand, demand increased protection from gun violence in their schools.

Several others carried signs reading: “We deserve more than thoughts & prayers,” “Will I be next?” and “Stop gun violence.”

Friday’s Highland High student rally was one of many student walkouts happening simultaneously across the country as part of a nationwide effort organized by the gun violence prevention movement Students Demand Action.

Friday’s actions were prompted, in part, by last week’s Minnesota school shooting.

The attention-grabbing school walkouts are vital because gun violence in schools affects “literally everyone,” said LeCluyse, who helped organize the Highland High rally.

“I don’t know a single person who hasn’t been in a lockdown during their life,” she told the Deseret News while leading the student march to the park.

“It’s something that affects every aspect of our daily lives. And I think following the school shooting last week, it’s just really important to tell people that we’ve had enough of this.

“This isn’t the future that we want to grow up in. We deserve better.”

LeCluyse added she learned about the nationwide Students Demand Action effort just a few days ago. So organizing Friday’s rally “has been hectic” — spreading the word via word of mouth and social media and posting flyers.

“So it’s great to see these people here — especially with how quickly we put it all together.”

While school shootings such as the recent one in Minnesota often leave people flummoxed as they search for solutions, LeCluyse countered that other countries have more aggressively regulated access to firearms, particularly assault-style weapons.

“I think we see those solutions in other countries … but do we actually have the commitment to put them in place here and protect our kids?”

After congregating on the north end of Sugar House Park, a long line of student protesters took turns standing atop a park bench, issuing their own personal calls to action.

“We need more mental health (resources) in our schools, but we’re being ignored,” said one student. “We need to use our voices and stand up for what is right. We do not deserve to die in a place where we’re supposed to be protected.”

Said another female student: “We should not be threatened with death every day in school.”

“Every day I worry that I will go to school and not come back,” added another teen. “I worry that I’m not going to see my friends again.

“I should be stressed about tests — so why do I have to worry about dying?”

A young man spoke of recent policies in Wyoming loosening gun regulations on school grounds.

“Politicians,” he said, “are not doing anything to stop this.”

Highland High senior Macie Robbins said she joined Friday’s walkout out of concern for her younger friends and relatives who will be attending school for several more years.

“They don’t deserve to have to fear going to class.”

The threat of school gun violence has been Robbins’ reality throughout her K-12 school years. “Even when I was in kindergarten, we were doing drills on active shooters entering the school,” she said.

“Even though they were drills, we were still taught, at a young age, that we need to hide in cubbies or hide under our desks or hide in corners and lock all the doors in the schools.”

Robbins added she hopes more can be done to acknowledge and address mental health issues, especially for young people — even while lessening access to firearms.

Nationwide school walkouts

The Highland High School rally was one of more than 250 coordinated school walkouts Friday across the country, according to Students Demand Action.

“We shouldn’t have to stage national protests just to be heard, but that’s exactly what we did — more than 250 times over — across the country today,” said Timberlyn Mazeikis, a gun violence survivor from the school shooting at Michigan State University in 2023 and Students Demand Action volunteer from Minnesota.

“Thoughts and prayers won’t save us. Our generation deserves to grow up and live without the fear of bullets flying through our hallways. We’re demanding state and federal lawmakers ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines now.”

Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, said Friday’s walkouts across the country are youth exercises in courage.

“Students are walking out of their classrooms and into history, demanding the action that will save lives,” said Ferrell-Zabala in a Students Demand Action report.

“Lawmakers should take note: These students will not be ignored, and they will not stop until assault weapons are banned and our schools are safe.”