Why these Columbia students won't be participating in National Walkout Day

While many high school students across the Midlands will walk out of class for 17 minutes Wednesday morning, students at Cardinal Newman School will be making a different kind of walk.

Along with other high schools in the Diocese of Charleston, Cardinal Newman students are staging an alternative to the National Walkout Day, when many high schoolers around the nation will respond to the deadly Parkland, Fla., school shooting by walking out of classes and speaking for stricter gun laws and better school safety.

Students at Cardinal Newman instead will walk silently from their classrooms to the school gym, where they'll hold a student-led service and time of prayer for the victims of all school shootings.

They're calling it a "Walkout to Worship," along with a "Day of Kindness." The school is calling on each person to offer 17 acts of kindness in honor of the 17 victims of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

At least some other Catholic diocese around the country also are rejecting the National Walkout Day demonstrations.

This story was originally published March 13, 2018 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Why these Columbia students won't be participating in National Walkout Day."