Students participate in a walkout to protest gun violence at Lincoln Park High School, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Chicago, one month after a deadly shooting inside a high school in Parkland, Fla. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
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CHICAGO (AP) - Thousands of students at schools across Illinois participated in a national walkout to demand action on gun violence.
Students in places like the Chicago area, Decatur, Pekin, Quincy and Madison left classes Wednesday morning. The walkouts come after a gunman killed 17 students last month at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Students were urged to leave class at 10 a.m. local time for 17 minutes - one minute for each of the dead in Florida.
In the Chicago area, students wore orange and carried signs while shouting "Enough!" Barrington High School senior Syd Bakal said teens "are tired of lockdown drills, fear and perpetual mourning."
At West Aurora High School about 2,000 students walked to the football stadium where they formed the words "never again." In Decatur one protest sign read "Protect Us!"
Students from Champaign Central High School hold a banner with the names of the victims from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting as they gather outside of the school during a student walkout Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Champaign, Ill. Students around the area and across the country participated in walkouts Wednesday to protest gun violence, one month after the deadly shooting inside a high school in Parkland, Fla. (Stephen Haas/The News-Gazette via AP)
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Daniyarieah Lofton carries a photograph of Alyssa Alhadeff, a 14-year-old freshman who was shot and killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida one month ago today, during a walkout at Southeast High School Wednesday, March 14, 2018 in Springfield, Ill. Southeast students and teachers participated in the national demonstration to raise awareness about gun violence in schools. (Rich Saal/The State Journal-Register via AP)
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Students participate in a walkout to protest gun violence at Lincoln Park High School in response to last month's massacre of 17 people at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
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