Montgomery County Students To Meet With Florida Shooting Victims

SILVER SPRING, MD — Montgomery County high school students will have the opportunity to attend an event planned by Rep. Jamie Raskin Monday night at which they will meet with students from the Parkland, Fla. high school where 17 people were killed in a shooting on Valentine's Day.

Congressman Raskin (MD-8) organized the event with Florida Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-22) to bring Montgomery County students and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students together. The event will take place at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the auditorium of Montgomery Blair High School at 51 University Blvd. E in Silver Spring.

"Maryland high school students have been moved and inspired by the resiliency, intellectual toughness and moral courage of the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSD)," Raskin said in a statement. "I have arranged for a group of visiting MSD students to interact with students from high schools in Montgomery County who wish to express their support and solidarity."

Montgomery County students first expressed their support for MSD students Wednesday when about a thousand students walked out of class and marched to the U.S. Capitol.

See Related:

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March organizers sent out a news release saying students from Richard Montgomery, Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Blair were rallying along with students from other suburbs and Washington, D.C. Hundreds of students left their schools, scattered around the county and walked to the closest Metro station to get to D.C.

Raskin spoke to the students at the rally, saying, "I saw on T.V., one of our friends in Florida, a high school student, come out and say 'Either you are with us or against us. I came out of my office to say, I am with you 100 percent."

Superintendent Jack R. Smith said he strongly supports students who "engage in the civic process and share thoughts on the issues they are passionate about," but expressed concern with the walkouts.

"While we support student advocacy, leaving school property poses a significant safety risk, especially in light of the increase in school threats," Smith said. "MCPS does not have the staff or resources to ensure students are safe during the school day when they are not on a school campus. It also poses a safety challenge if schools are required to evacuate and we cannot account for all students because they have left."

Students are set to return to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Wednesday for their first day of classes, though some have said they were apprehensive about setting foot on the tree-lined campus so soon after the tragedy. One student told an interviewer over the weekend that it was not unlike being asked to return to an airplane that crashed.

"She's alive. She's physically fine. She doesn't want to come back and I don't blame her," one father said of his daughter to Local 10 News in Miami as he held a sign welcoming back teachers.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel last week ordered his deputies to begin patrolling all county schools with rifles, in most cases AR-15s similar to the assault rifle used by the gunman in the Stoneman Douglas attack.

Some professional baseball teams, including the Miami Marlins, donned Stoneman Douglas caps at spring training to show their support for survivors and victims of the tragedy while the Florida Panthers and Miami Heat also remembered the victims.

>> Students must register to attend the event at Montgomery Blair.