By Kantele Franko, Associated Press, staff and wire reports
COLUMBUS — An Ohio teenager wounded in a school shooting last year says he thinks it’s disrespectful to victims of the February massacre in Parkland, Florida, to use that tragedy to further a particular political agenda.
students in Columbus and across the nation observe the one-month anniversary of the shooting with walkouts aimed at promoting safety.
West Liberty-Salem High School student Logan Cole said in a Facebook video he won’t participate in the Wednesday student walkouts promoted by organizers of the Women’s March.
He argues that they’re oversimplifying the problem of school violence by advocating more gun control as the solution.
“I feel like violence in our schools and in our society is a much deeper issue, and I feel like it’s a little bit simplistic to look at this and point out gun control as the problem,” he said.
Cole said it’s better to honor the Parkland victims in a nonpolitical way. He is inviting classmates to join him in doing that through a midday Wednesday memorial service at his school.
The teen suspect in the shooting that left Cole injured has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges including attempted murder.
From Maine to Hawaii, organizers say nearly 3,000 walkouts are set in the biggest demonstration yet of the student activism that has emerged following the massacre.
Students from the elementary to college level are taking up the call in a variety of ways. Some planned roadside rallies to honor shooting victims and protest violence. Others were to hold demonstrations in school gyms or on football fields. In Ohio, students said they’ll head to the statehouse to lobby for new gun regulations.
At Case Elementary School in Akron, a group of fifth-graders have organized a walkout with the help of teachers after seeing parallels in a video they watched about youth marches for civil rights in 1963. Case instructors said 150 or more students will line a sidewalk along a nearby road, carrying posters with the names of Parkland victims.
The coordinated walkout was organized by Empower, the youth wing of the Women’s March, which brought thousands to Washington, D.C., last year. The group urged students to leave class at 10 a.m. local time for 17 minutes — one minute for each victim in the Florida shooting.