'We need to listen to our kids': Scottsdale, Florence students hold 17 minutes of silence

Hundreds of students at two Arizona high schools briefly left their classrooms for a silent demonstration Thursday morning to honor the victims of last week's massacre at a Florida high school.

The demonstrations at Poston Butte High School in Florence and Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale follow staged student walkouts at three high schools in the Southeast Valley Wednesday and ahead of what is likely to be more Arizona student protests planned for the coming weeks.

Thousands of other students across the U.S. also walked out of school, either in protest of gun violence or in solidarity with the victims of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

MORE: Gilbert, San Tan Valley, Mesa students walk out for 17 killed at Florida high school

Students at both Poston Butte and Desert Mountain high schools organized demonstrations during the school day in which they stood silent for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 victims from last week's shooting rampage.

Videos posted on Snapchat showed hundreds of Poston Butte students lined around the school's football field. The videos showed students huddled in silence — some of them holding hands or bowing their heads — as a television helicopter whirred above them in the distance.

The students stood in silence around the football field for 17 minutes, then walked back toward the school's campus to resume regular instruction.

Chris Knutsen, superintendent of the Florence Unified School District, said he supported his students' demonstration, which he described as "a very peaceful, appropriate meeting for our kids" that minimized disruption to the school day.

About half the school's 1,460 students participated in the 10 a.m. moment of silence demonstration, Knutsen said.

Knutsen and a school board member walked out with students.

"Sometimes we need to listen to our kids," Knutsen said. "We continue to see these things happen in our nation and I think sometimes we need to listen to our kids to help stop these mass shootings from happening in our country."

MORE: National School Walkout to protest gun violence

Richard Franco, spokesman for the Florence Unified School District, said the district contacted the Pinal County Sheriff's Office to help provide security for the demonstration.

Franco said students who participated will not be disciplined "as long as they are working with school leadership to not disrupt the educational environment."

"We are working with student leaders at all three high schools to give students the opportunity to come together and share their concerns as well as show their support for one another on March 14," Franco said.

At Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale, students walked out of their classes at about noon and held their own silent demonstration.

Madison Kelly, a Desert Mountain student and one of the demonstration's organizers, said the school was "supportive of us speaking out for a change."

Kelly said Desert Mountain administrators assured students that they would not be disciplined for walking out of class as long as they did it peacefully.

“The tragedy in Parkland, Florida last week has left us all heartbroken," Scottsdale schools superintendent Denise Birdwell wrote in a letter to parents. "Here in the Scottsdale Unified School District, we have taken some time to process the news and find we are still at a loss for words."

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