By Philip Haldiman, Independent Newsmedia

Walkout events of all different stripes have been occurring throughout the Valley and country to fight the normalization of gun violence that has pervaded the American way of life since the Columbine shooting in 1999.

Looking forward, organizers said they will not stop fighting for gun reform, continuing a wave of youth activism that will play out at at least two more protests in the coming month: the March for Our Lives protest Saturday, March 24 and another event scheduled for Friday, April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine shooting.

Catherine Broski, a sophomore at Millennium High School 14802 W. Wigwam Blvd., Goodyear, said she and a group of student activists delivered an open letter outlining gun reform demands to Gov. Doug Ducey’s office that evolved into a sit-in after they were denied a meeting with him March 15.

The group set a March 24 deadline for a response from the governor, the same day she and other students will take to the streets of Phoenix for the March For Our Lives protest at the State Capitol, where Ms. Broski is expecting more than 20,000 participants.

The March For Our Lives movement originated as a response from survivors of last month’s school massacre in Parkland, Fla., and has since grown into a national movement.

A local planning committee member of that movement in Arizona, Ms. Broski said the push for gun reform will continue, as well as a push to register 1,500 high school seniors at the March 24 protest.

“What sets our movement apart is that we are students, and most of us are not eligible to vote. We aren’t listening to the people who say we can’t do it,” she said. “It is the older generation who may have given up, but we are full of hope, we are working to mobilize. We are hopeful.”

She said the movement has three main goals: require universal comprehensive background checks for all gun sales; ban trigger cranks like the bump stocks used in the Las Vegas massacre Oct. 10; and an increase in-school psychologists.

She said the ratio of on-campus psychologists to students is one to 900 in Arizona.  Their goal is to reach a one to 250 ratio.

“Early detection is key. We are adamant about having psychologists because the majority of school shootings are suicides. A Student Resource Officer is not trained for that. I would also like to note that we do not want an increased presence of SROs or arming of teachers,” Ms. Broski said.

Peoria High School

In the West Valley, students organized on-campus walkouts at Peoria and Mountain Ridge high schools March 15.

Senior Hailey Flynn said the event at Peoria High School, prompted spontaneously by student council members, originated and came to light through social media apps like Snapchat and Twitter. She said the event gained steam only after a few days and she was surprised that about 1,500 students participated.

The walk-out was allowed by teachers and administration.

“I did not think it would be that big,” she said. “The students were not there to skip class. They were very respectful. I was really proud of my school.”

The gathering included 17 minutes of silence followed by a recitation of the names of the 17 people who died in the Feb. 14 school shooting in Florida. Students talked about the shooting and were given the opportunity to anonymously write their thoughts on gun reform.

Ms. Flynn said it was a good response from students and brought people closer together.

“It was a great way to understand everybody better,” she said.

In addition to the 10 a.m. walk-out, a short assembly about moving past and understanding the trauma of school shootings was held later in the day. It featured performances from student dancers and a choir.

Students were not required to attend any of the events.

Ms. Flynn said mental health has to be taken into consideration and gun violence should not be normalized.

“As a student you are surrounded by other students who come to school every day and we are here eight hours a day and sometimes longer. Even if you don’t have a direct connection to a school shooting, you can’t help but have a personal connection. It strikes you. It makes me wish things like this didn’t have to happen,” she said. “So we should not get used to it. We need to sit in it and then talk to people and befriend others. Be mindful of what someone could be going through. Just by talking to them, you could make them happy.”

Mountain Ridge High School

Students at Mountain Ridge High School joined four other schools in Glendale March15 to walkout in protest of gun violence in schools and plead lawmakers for stricter gun control.

A few hundred students gathered around signs that read “ENOUGH” on Mountain Ridge’s football field, for a 17-minute walkout, honoring the 17 killed in the shooting one month prior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

“This could have very well been us,” said senior Rylee Tinnel, who organized the event with fellow senior Jacob Sumner. “Yes, it happened in Florida on that day, but what makes it that way? What stops that from happening on our campus tomorrow?”

In a speech Ms. Tinnel gave during the event, she laid out a list of requests she believed would make schools safer.

“These shootings happen, not just in schools, but in banks, movie theaters, churches, rec centers, naval bases, parking lots, offices, libraries and homes,” Ms. Tinnel said. “These horrible acts may not have location in common, victims in common or motivations in common. What each shooting does have is a man with a gun that shouldn’t have been able to get one in the first place.”

Mountain Ridge High and Deer Valley Unified School District administrators did not punish students for walking out of class and wanted to stay neutral in the issue.

“We neither discouraged nor encouraged students to take part,” said DVUSD spokeswoman Monica Allread. “Our focus was on teaching and learning and keeping kids safe.”

A safety issue arose in the initial planning of the walkout, which was originally planned to take place off campus along 67th Avenue. Mr. Sumner said the original plan was to march along the road for 90 minutes to two hours.

“Our focus really was trying to keep the kids safe, as safe as possible,” Ms. Allread said. “And when we learned that there were plans to leave campus, we really felt we needed to step in to make sure that kids were safe.”

Because of those safety concerns, administrators threatened to suspend students if they protested off campus. Instead administrators worked with student organizers to allow students to use the football field and not punish those who left class, so long as they returned after the 17 minutes passed.

Ms. Tinnel said a protest along the road would have had a different feel. It would have been longer and louder, she said, with more screaming and picketing, “But I think it would have lost that mourning aspect,” she said. “So, I am kind of glad that it ended up on the field, because we were able to keep that as a primary goal of ours, which was to mourn and respect everybody that has been lost so senselessly.”

Editor’s note: News Editor Mark Carlisle contributed to this report.