Florida school students form giant human heart to honour Parkland shooting victims

Thousands of students stage school walkout in protest of gun violence

Hundreds of Florida high school students have formed a giant, human heart on their school football field to honour the 17 students and staff members gunned down at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Carrying signs reading reading “Make us safe” and “Justice for Douglas,” the Coral Springs High School students marched onto the field in memory of the victims, and in protest of gun violence in America.

"We’re protesting for better mental health care and stricter gun laws so things like this can’t happen in our schools anymore because we need to make a difference. It can’t happen anymore," Coral Springs High student Jaylen Pesantes told NBC 6.

The students were just a handful of the thousands who staged walkouts across Florida today, just one week after police say a lone gunman entered Stoneman Douglas and fired on his victims with an AR-15 rifle.

Students at Cooper City High School, just 25 miles away, also formed a heart on their football field. At nearby Cypress Bay High School, some 5,000 students and staff members walked out of the building in protest, according to ABC 10 News. Students brought signs reading "I am fed up … We all are!" and "Bring on the politicians! We will rise!"

Across the street, survivors of the Stoneman Douglas shooting testified to their experience.

"I think that it's important that they come and they talk to us, and they tell us their experience so that we can advocate, and we can fight with them, and stand with them as students so this doesn't happen again," Senior Class President Julia Levy told ABC 10.

The protests were part of a movement started by the Stoneman Douglas student survivors, who are advocating for new gun control laws across the country. Using the hashtag #NoMore, they have helped plan walkouts in high schools, town halls in the state capital, and even a listening session with Donald Trump in Washington DC.

At the listening session on Wednesday, Stoneman Douglas student Sam Zeif told the president he had lost a best friend in the shooting.

“I’m here to use my voice because I know he can’t,” Mr Zeif said. “And I know he’s with me, cheering me on to be strong, but it’s hard. And to feel like this – It doesn’t even feel like a week. Time has stood still.”

He added: “I can’t feel comfortable in my country knowing that people have, will have, are ever going to feel like this. I want to feel safe at school.”