This past Thursday, hundreds of thousands of students from over 100 countries walked out of school to protest for environmental action.

Outraged students from South Africa to the United States call on lawmakers from their countries to take immediate action on climate change. This walkout was started by 16-year-old Swedish student and activist Greta Thunberg. Greta’s work for action on climate change began last year when she started holding demonstrations outside the Swedish parliament. Her actions inspired students from all over the world to ask their politicians to take action as well.

This walkout, however, is not the first of its kind. In the past several years, thousands of students across the US and the DMV have walked out of school for many reasons ranging from stricter gun regulations to women's rights.

The first major student walkout in the DMV was in 2017 after president Trump was elected. It was organized by students at Wilson high school in DC. Thousands of students walked out and met at the Trump Hotel. Students then marched to the capital and eventually met at the Washington monument.

A more recent student-organized protest was for the students who were killed at the Parkland shooting. This was held in 2018 and organized by a group of students called MoCo for change. MoCo for change is a group of students from schools in Montgomery County that organizes walkouts and protests and helps guide students in different ways that they can help make a change.

Since the start of the new year, the group MoCo for change has accomplished a number of things and we are only three months in. since there original walkout many town halls and meetings with Congress have been held to discuss possible laws and regulations on the topic of gun control.

Another thing that a group of students in the group MoCo for change has done is to create a memorial for all the teens who have lost their lives due to gun violence in 2019. This memorial was organized and set up at BCC high school. 199 shirts were hung up outside the school with the names and age of the death of all the teens.

The most recent achievement of there is a memorial protest for the parkland shooting.

This group and many other student activists in the DMV have done so many things in the past 3 years. Even though the majority of the students who are walking out and attending these demonstrations aren’t even old enough to vote, they are still making their voices heard. Students have started this new year strong and have shown that as the year continues we will see a lot more about what students are capable of and how their voices will be heard.