On Wednesday, March 14, many students around the country, including those students at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School who choose to take part, will be participating in a living, breathing, civics lesson by joining in an organized walk-out of class for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 students and staff killed recently in the school shooting in Florida.

Students nationwide feel they have been let down and left vulnerable. The walkout is, in part, making that statement as well.

Shootings in schools, churches — even at country music concerts — have yielded lots of talk, but no legislative action. The impressive, articulate and peaceful way students have responded is uplifting.

While it is correct to assume there are many opinions on such issues, many members of the Oxford Hills Area Clergy Association will be present on Wednesday morning to offer a sense of solidarity with our students. We are hoping for something good to come from the senseless acts of violence that have torn at the fabric of this country.

We have offered our prayers after each violent event, and we are looking for the result of those prayers to actually begin to arrive. Just maybe these young Americans will lead us. That is our hope as we stand with them on Wednesday.

The Rev. Don Mayberry, South Paris, on behalf of the Oxford Hills Area Clergy Association