JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Gun violence and policy changes were hot topics at a town hall at the Hyatt Regency Riverfront Hotel Saturday. More than a hundred students from Jacksonville-area schools voiced their opinions about ways to stay safe after the Valentine's Day shooting at a school in Parkland Florida that killed 17 people,
Adrena Forest is a senior at Atlantic Coast High School and helped organize the event as a way to keep the conversation going.
"When I first heard about the Parkland shooting, I didn't feel that affected. They are so normalized in our country, that it wasn't until the parents began matching names to the faces and stories to the names when l was absolutely devastated," Forest said.
The shooting has inspired teens to learn more about policies and politics and ways to make their voices heard. Forest said it's not just Parkland, it's all gun violence.
"If you remember in 2012, we had the Episcopal (school) shooting right here in Jacksonville and gun violence in certain parts of the area is not limited to mass shootings or limited to schools. It happens right here in our own backyard and it's really important to remember that," Forest said
Forest and hundreds of other Jacksonville area students are planning to take part in a Nationwide Walkout on April 20, which marks 19 years since the Columbine School mass shooting.
Organizers of the Walkout ask students to sit outside their schools and peacefully protest, while they make some noise and voice their thoughts for change.