May 26 (UPI) -- More than 100 students at Oxford High School in Michigan walked out of school Thursday in protest of gun violence following a mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, this week.
The Oxford, Mich., school was the site of a mass shooting on Nov. 30 in which 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley shot and killed four people.
The students congregated on the school's football field for a few minutes, forming the letter U while exchanging hugs before filing back into the school building at 12:35 p.m., the Detroit Free Press reported.
"As a community, our hearts are with Uvalde and we understand why some of our students chose to participate in the national walkout," Dani Stublensky, a spokeswoman with the school district, said.
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In Tuesday's shooting, 19 students and two adults were killed when gunman Salvador Ramos, who was killed by law enforcement, opened fire at the school which includes grades 2 through 4.
Students Demand Action, a national advocacy organization against gun violence, put out a call for students to organize walkouts on Thursday.
"We refuse to go out like this. WALKOUT THURSDAY 5/26," the organization wrote on Twitter.
Students at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, Calif., which was the site of a November 2019 shooting that left two students dead, also walked out of class Thursday, ABC News reported.
Additionally, student organizers at Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School in Port Washington, N.Y., said 600 students participated in a walkout.
"You see news every day about kids getting shot and people your age dying and it's just incredibly sad and unbelievable, especially to see like kids younger and kids my age," Emma Janoff, an 11th grader at the school told ABC News. "I can't imagine that being me, but it is imaginable because it happens so often."
