Students across campus, the district and nation plan to WalkOut Friday in a unified campaign calling for common sense gun control laws. The scheduled event will be in the gym during advisory period, a time and place agreed upon by administrators and student leaders earlier this week after deeming a walkout outside school grounds didn’t allow school officials to guarantee students’ safety.  The walkout comes 19 years after the shootings at Columbine High School and 2 months after the 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, which sparked a nationwide movement among students beseeching gun reform. 

The Frisco ISD WalkOut website states the event plans to be a limited forum for “speeches, performances, voter registration, a moment of silence, honoring and talking about the victims of gun violence, voting information for the midterm elections, calling representatives, letter writing to representatives, signing a petition demanding our policies to be implemented, and other activities that will help us students rise up and make our voices heard in this important battle for protection from gun violence.”

Principal Mark Mimms said in a email to parents Thursday that the law does not allow a school or school district to endorse or oppose a student walkout.

“In the event of a walkout on our campus, we have designated a location and time for the students who choose to participate in the walkout during the least disruptive time of the school day so that the campus may continue with normal daily activities,” Mimms said. “We will also have additional security measures in place which have been coordinated with Frisco PD to ensure the safety of students who choose to participate in the walkout.”

Junior Kundai Nyamandi, a student organizer of the event, said she and other leaders have been working with Mimms and other organizers across the district to create a space for students to peacefully assemble.

“Mr. Mimms has tried to work with us as much as possible to organize the Walkout and the safety of the students without compromising anyone’s safety or anyone’s voice because there are students who don’t want to participate in this WalkOut and he doesn’t want to make anyone feel like they have to,” Nyamandi said.

Nyamandi said there are students who plan on participating in the Walkout outside of the set time constraints but that they acknowledge that consequences may ensue.

“If a student chooses to walk out of class at a different time or chooses to stay out of class beyond the agreed upon time, they may receive an absence or be subject to discipline according to the student code of conduct,” Mimms said in his email.

Students wanting to participate in the Walkout are encouraged to follow the school’s Walkout twitter page or visit their website for more information regarding their policies.