PHOENIX - It's been exactly one month since a gunman went on a deadly shooting spree, killing 17 people at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Since that tragic day, thousands of students across the nation and here in Arizona have been planning walkouts to demand the White House and lawmakers take action to make schools safer.
Students, administrators and others supporting #EnoughIsEnough are planning to walk out of nearly 3,000 schools nationwide. The effort is protesting gun violence and is led by the Women's March's youth Empower Group.
Participating Valley schools include:
• Hamilton
• Mountain Ridge
• Brophy
• Xavier
• Corona
• Sunrise
Students nationwide are marking National Walkout Day, most by leaving their classrooms at 10 a.m. local times for 17 minutes to show solidarity for those killed in the Valentine's Day attack in Florida.
Students are asking Congress to ban assault weapons, require universal background checks before gun sales, and pass gun violence restraining orders to take guns away from people who show violent behavior.
It's a grassroots movement started largely on social media.
Videos posted on Snapchat showed students marching, chanting, standing in a moment of silence, even reading poems.
In Surprise, students gathered on a school football field.
Some chanted, "Make a change," as they walked out.
Holding handmade signs, students in Glendale honored the Parkland victims with a moment of silence.
A student at Sunnyslope High School was seen reading a poem written by a Parkland survivor in front of a group of students.
Sunnyslope High School student, Hannah Hausknecht-Buss, says they don't want to become a text book statistic.
"I just want to eradicate this fear that's infiltrating our school and our community," Hausknecht-Buss said. "We are students and we are kids. That's really what we just need to be right now."
Wednesday is the first of two national walkouts expected to be hosted at schools. Sunnyslope High school students will lead a walkout to the school football field at 10 a.m.
Aside from the demonstrations at schools today, students also gathered at the Arizona State Capitol.
About 50 students and their supporters are rallying for gun reform outside the statehouse in Phoenix.
The teens, who are on spring break, congregated Wednesday before going to meet with lawmakers and sit in on a House session.
They wore painted white T-shirts with gun violence statistics to wear when inside the chamber as part of a national action aimed at drawing attention to the recent shooting of 17 high school students in Florida.
The students say they want Arizona legislators to ban so-called "bump stocks" that can be attached to a semi-automatic rifle to allow it to mimic automatic fire. They also want lawmakers to expand background checks and restrict guns for those who commit domestic violence.
Associated Press contributed to this story.