Local high school students take part in national school walkouts to protest gun violence

About 150 students at Marina High School in Huntington Beach were among thousands locally and nationwide who demonstrated Wednesday morning against gun violence in schools and for stricter gun control.

The event, part of a coordinated series of school walkouts around the country, started during a break around 10 a.m. and lasted about 20 minutes. It came one month after a shooting at a Florida high school left 17 people dead.

The Marina students, mostly juniors and seniors, converged on a grassy space in front of their campus, facing Springdale Street. School officials restricted media and other public access to the campus throughout the demonstration, with some stationed on streets and blocking cars from coming in.

The students chanted phrases including “This is what democracy looks like,” “Enough is enough” and “March for our lives” as school administrators and Huntington Beach police officers watched nearby. Some onlookers peered at the scene from the Springdale Street sidewalk across from the campus.

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Daniel McKenzie, an 18-year-old senior who was one of the student organizers of the walkout, spoke on the sidewalk just outside the school. He said many of his classmates are afraid to go to school considering the weapons available in the United States.

About a week after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., a fire alarm went off on the Marina campus, he said.

“I think the first thought of me and many other students is that there was a shooter on the campus,” McKenzie said. “I don’t believe that should be the case. If a fire alarm goes off, that should mean there’s a fire going on at school, not the possibility of a shooter.

“I believe that the whole mentality has got to change, and I believe this is the first step to trying to make that change.”

McKenzie wore a shirt bearing the name Scott Beigel, a teacher at Marjory Stoneman who was killed in the shooting. Other students also wore shirts with names of victims from the massacre.

Elsewhere in Huntington Beach, about 70 Ocean View High School students participated in the walkouts, some lying on the grass in front of the campus to symbolize the 17 killed in the Parkland shooting.

According to photos and videos posted on Facebook, the students chanted “Love not hate. Make America great” and displayed signs reading “Protect kids, not guns” and “Never again! Enough is enough.”

A similar demonstration was held in the quad at the Corona del Mar High and Middle School campus, but the public was barred and it was not immediately clear how many students participated.

Newport-Mesa Unified School District spokeswoman Annette Franco said in a statement that “a few hundred students at each of our high schools” walked out of classes and returned after 17 minutes, honoring the 17 Florida victims.

“Everything appears to have been done appropriately and respectfully. Students at some schools held a moment of silence, made a few speeches, released balloons with the names of the Parkland victims and held signs in support of victims and stronger gun control,” Franco said.

Huntington Beach High School students also demonstrated Wednesday following a report that a shooting might be planned at the campus during the walkout.

On Tuesday evening, a parent of a Huntington Beach High student posted on a community Facebook group about the possible threat.

She wrote that her son and his friends heard from other students that two boys were showing pictures of guns on Instagram and saying that “17 minutes tomorrow would be like shooting fish in a barrel.” The post gathered a lot of attention on social media, police said.

Huntington Beach officers investigated and determined the threat was not credible, police said.

“We take every one of those tips seriously and investigate until we can determine whether or not we have a credible threat,” Officer Angela Bennett said. “It was a rumor and, unfortunately, it was kind of reckless.”

Huntington Beach Union High School District administrators heard about the social media post Tuesday, district spokeswoman Cheryl McKenzie said, and police were present at all the district’s campuses Wednesday, including Fountain Valley and Westminster high schools.

“Student safety is our highest priority, and we will continue to work closely with the HBPD and the other local police departments to address any and all threats that we become aware of,” McKenzie said in an email.

Soon after the protests, some people took to the Huntington Beach Community Forum, a Facebook group with more than 26,000 members, to debate the walkouts.

While some parents disliked the political nature of the demonstrations — one Marina High mother called the children participating “political pawns” — others said they were proud that they exercised their First Amendment rights in a respectful manner.

Staff writers Hannah Fry and Hillary Davis contributed to this report.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint

UPDATES:

3:45 p.m.: This article was updated with details about a report of a threat against Huntington Beach High School, which also participated in Wednesday’s demonstrations.

This article was originally published at 12:10 p.m.