Hoggard High students want message of solidarity, action shared during walkout

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) –  This week students from several Cape Fear area schools plan to hold a walkout to remember the students killed in Parkland, Florida.

We talked to students who are organizing the walkout at Hoggard High School.

Hoggard students, like those in other New Hanover County Schools, will let leave class at 10 A.M. Wednesday to take part in the national event.

The walkout will come exactly one month since the Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.

“We really want to inspire discussion,” said Hoggard High student and event organizer Johanna Berg.

When Berg heard about schools across the country organizing a seventeen minute walkout to remember the 17 gunned down, she wanted Hoggard to show their support. She’s not alone her sister Kenna also wanted to be a part of it.

“You look at the safety issues with having a school with just this layout and stuff and this large, you think, we’re not so different,” said Kenna Berg.

Julian Fisher also joined them with one goal in mind for the event.

“We want to show solidarity for the victims,” said Fisher. “However, I think we’re trying to start a discussion on campus specifically just about gun rights in this country.”

They’re doing most of their promoting online, but news of the walkout is spreading through the hall ways.

“This is something that affects our safety, it affects how we feel when we go to school everyday,” said Johanna.

Berg says she’s more anxious coming to school now. She wants to open a dialogue so students who have those same fears can go to the school or to the state and be heard.

“It’s not just a partisan issue that comes up every once in a while in Congress,” said Fisher. “It really is something that everyone needs to be involved in to some extent.”

They’re promoting the walkout on sites like Instagram where they have mentioned the school requesting students return to class within five minutes at the end of the protest.

You can find out what other school district’s are doing or not doing in relation to the walkouts here.