Several hundred students at Mesa High School walked out of class at noon on Wednesday in response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, last week.

A spokeswoman for Mesa Public Schools said​ students went to a local park where they held a vigil and sang songs for the 17 victims of the massacre. The students returned to school after about 30 minutes.

Senior Eric Gonzalez did not go, saying he couldn’t afford to miss class. But he wishes he could have gone – and believes in demanding more gun control and remembering school shooting victims.

"There’s a bunch of uproar right now and, like, we’ve never seen something like this, where people are consistently doing this, and just coming together, and it’s awesome, to be honest. It’s great. Something's being done," Gonzalez said.

This walk-out was in solidarity with walk-outs across the country – including at the school in Florida, where the deadly shooting occurred – to demand gun control legislation to prevent future tragedies. While many students at Mesa High spoke of walking out to make a statement, others said they just wanted to cut class.