Students and school staff across the US are commemorating the Florida school shootings with a walkout, exactly one month after the killings.
Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School walk out of school to honor the memories of 17 classmates and teachers that were killed during a mass shooting at the school on March 14, 2018 in Parkland, Florida. Photo: AFP
They are stopping lessons for 17 minutes in memory of the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Pupils at the school, which was targeted by a former student, hugged each other on the football field.
Protest organisers accuse Congress of failing to tackle gun violence.
The White House revealed a plan this week to deter school shootings which does not include President Donald Trump's repeated calls to raise the age for buying semi-automatic rifles to 21.
Instead, it moves ahead with his controversial proposal to provide firearms training to school employees.
The walkouts began at 10am in the eastern US (3am NZT) and moved west across America's time zones.
Organisers of the National School Walkout, who were also behind the Women's March in January 2017 against Mr Trump's inauguration, called on "students, teachers, school administrators, parents and allies" to take part.
On their website, they accuse Congress of "inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing" schools and neighbourhoods.
Schools taking part included Colorado's Columbine High School where 13 people were shot dead by two students in 1999.
A student from has the words,'don't shoot,' written on her hands as she joins with other students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after walking out of their school. Photo: AFP
In Parkland, families and supporters applauded as thousands of students slowly marched on to the Stoneman Douglas school football field.
School principal Ty Thompson called on them to stage the "biggest group hug".
A large crowd of students from the Washington area gathered outside the White House holding signs reading "Protect People Not Guns" and chanting "Never again" and "Enough is enough".
Some students also gathered at Capitol Hill where they were addressed by the Senate and House Democratic leaders, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
"We're all moved by your eloquence and your fearless insistence on action to prevent gun violence," Ms Pelosi told them.
"Thank you for bringing your urgency to this fight, to the doorstep of America, the doorstep of the Capitol of the United States."
Students in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, stood in a heart formation to pay tribute to the Parkland victims.
In New York, hundreds of students from Fiorello H LaGuardia High School - many dressed in orange, the colour of the gun-control movement - took to the streets of Manhattan.
"Thoughts and prayers are not enough," read one sign.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also joined protesters for a symbolic "die-in" - lying down in a street in Lower Manhattan.
The disruption to the school day is opposed by some schools, notably in one Texas district where students who walk out have been told they face a three-day suspension.
"We will discipline no matter if it is one, 50, or 500 students involved," said Needville schools superintendent Curtis Rhode.
- BBC
