Several dozen students at Blake High School in Tampa walked out of class on Friday to show their support for stricter gun laws following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

  • Students marched from campus to Curtis Hixon Park
  • March followed by rally, candlelight vigil
  • Students called for more security, SROs in schools

"I'm doing this because I don't feel safe at school anymore," said Elio Peguero. "Honestly, I come to school every day and I don't know if someone could bring a gun to school and kill me and all of my friends."

The students marched several blocks from the school to Curtis Hixson Park in downtown Tampa, where they held a rally and candlelight vigil.

Since most of them aren't old enough to vote, they said they are hoping large protests will sway politicians to consider new gun laws.

"It's just not fair to our youth for adults to decide what going to happen in our lives like this," said Sebastian Underwood.

Students said they'd like to see more security in schools and more resource officers.

"It's important because if nobody were to speak out, what would change?" said Samantha Parker. "We've had things like this happen in the past and nobody has spoken out, so we need change. It needs to happen now."

The students held large signs with pictures of the Parkland victims. They said remembering them is their motivation.

"I want to stop this because they are basically us," said Akiliah Wilson. "I know people, friends, family that this could happen to ... it's sad that we can't all come together and say 'no, we don't want this anymore.'"

Students closed the evening with a candlelight vigil and a minute of silence for each of the 17 Parkland victims.