PHOTOS: Triangle students participate in National School Walkout
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Students walked out of schools including Chapel Hill High, East Chapel Hill High and Enloe High in Raleigh.
Chapel Hill students walk out
"All these recent shootings, people want a change," Chapel Hill High Student Beckett Peterson told ABC11.
"This is really a powerful message we're trying to send that enough with gun violence in our schools," said Chapel Hill High Student Thomas Inman.
Students rallied at the old post office on 179 East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools said that by students leaving campus, it's a violation of the student code of conduct and that there will be consequences.
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In a phone message to students, high school principals said in part: "We fully support student voice, however, it must be done in a way that is safe and doesn't negatively impact education."
Triangle students participate in National School Walkout
But some students said they'll take the risk to get their voices heard.
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"With our school, they're like we fully support this but the second you walk off campus we don't support it," Peterson said. "We feel that's not right. We're going to speak. We're going to say what we think is right."
At Enloe High School in Raleigh, students walked out and demonstrated for about 50 minutes. At least several hundred of the estimated 2,500 who attend Enloe participated in the walkout.
A Wake County Public Schools System spokesperson told ABC11's Jonah Kaplan that students who walked out would not face disciplinary action.