Albuquerque students walk out to protest gun violence following latest school shooting

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) –  As people across the country continue to mourn the 19 students and two teachers killed in a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, students at Cottonwood Classical Prep School held a walkout Thursday. Students at Cottonwood Classical say that after this latest tragedy, enough is enough, but fear nothing is going to change and the next school shooting isn’t a matter of if, but when.

Katiyana Goslow, a student at Cottonwood Classical, participated in the walkout today. She says after the shooting she was distraught, “I just really felt sad for like the families of the students who passed away.”

Many students, like Goslow, asked a question no child should have to ask. “When, and where the next one will be, like the shootings. And I was just, like really thinking to myself, like if it’ll happen at my school or not?”

The students at Cottonwood Classical were not the only ones in the metro standing together. Students at Rio Grande High School set up 21 empty chairs outside the school, then rang 21 bells, symbolizing the 19 children and two teachers killed in Uvalde.

Students at Cottonwood Classical say this is only the beginning of their fight for change and hope others follow them. “Other schools are trying to act. I feel like there should be a lot more instead of just two schools because this is a very serious topic,” said Kylie Turner, another student at Cottonwood Classical.

The shooting in Uvalde marks the 27th school shooting in the country this year.