DALLAS -- From HD Chopper 8, you can see hundreds of students at Dallas ISD’s Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center taking a peacefully stand against gun violence.
Senior Traelon Rodgers was one of several speakers to take to the podium. He's the organizer.
"My birthday is November the sixth, and I voted on November seventh," Rodgers said.
This comes a day before the March For Our Lives Rally takes place in Washington D.C. More than 1 million people are expected to attend the rally in support of changing gun regulations and fostering more school safety.
A day before a national rally in D.C., Rodgers called on his fellow students to walk out of school to send a message.
"Instead of us sitting in class and hoping that it doesn't happen to us, we're going to actively seek change," Rodgers said.
The walkout was peaceful -- lasting just 17 minutes -- one minute for every young person killed in that deadly Florida shooting.
"This was a peaceful walkout asking our elected officials to do what they've been elected to do and, that's to protect the people and preserve the United States of America," Rodgers said.
Students call for extensive background checks, waiting periods on gun purchases and an all-out ban on assault rifles.
"There needs to be something done. It needs to stop being so easy for people to buy AR-15's and to come to schools," said Senior Clarissa Cruz-Duran.
"We're taking baby steps, and eventually this will reach to the nation's capital and the White House and we want it to," Rodgers said.
Just this month, Rodgers was in D.C. He hopes to study politics and one day become a senator. "I was there at the capitol that day and I said that something needs to be done in Dallas," Rodgers said.
But of all the images from his trip -- this one stood out. Thousands of shoes outside the capitol – a pair for each child shot and killed since the attack at Sandy Hook.
"It symbolizes to me what could have been and what's not. They had so much life left in them," Rodgers said.