In the wake of the recent school shooting in Nashville, hundreds of Bay Area students and tens of thousands nationwide walked out of class Wednesday to demand more be done to stop gun violence.
The walkout was part of a nationwide effort by the group Students Demand Action.
In San Francisco, about 180 middle schoolers at Creative Arts Charter School walked out holding signs demanding change.
"I came out because the adults in our country have failed us by letting this happen and by letting this happen so many times over and over," sixth grader Bird Honan said. "I want people to look up and listen to us. I hope that today will help them listen to us more. We shouldn’t have to be standing here with these signs fighting for our safety."
Students in Mill Valley held a similar walkout, as did groups in Benicia and Berkeley.
Teachers said it's important students feel empowered and have some belief they can make a difference in preventing school shootings.
"We think of schools as being places for learning reading, writing, arithmetic, but this is also a place where we learn how to advocate for ourselves and we learn how to promote social justice," Creative Arts Charter School teacher Genevieve Coady said. "This is a really big component of things that we need schools to be doing for our students."
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