Lane Murdock, a teen from Ridgefield, Connecticut, felt numb when she heard the news of the Parkland, Florida shootings. She founda her lack of overwhelming emotion to be normal, which was upsetting to her: “I had such a numb reaction, I knew it was time for change. I know that the whole nation is numb to things like this, and that’s why change isn’t happening”.
In order to combat America’s lack of empathy for mass shootings, she decided to organize a national student walkout. She created a petition titled “National High School Walk-Out for Anti Gun Violence” on Change.org. The petition encourages students across the nation to leave their classes at 10 A.M and then take part in seventeen minutes of silence – one minute for each victim of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shootings. She has scheduled the walkout for April 20th, which is the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings.
The petition currently has 245,252 signatures, with a goal of reaching 300,000 by the walkout.
