As students claimed their right to safer schools and proclaimed their intention to be agents of change, parents and supporters looked on from afar.

Many of them remarked that the National School Walkout took them back in time, back to when they were the students confronting politics of the day.

“It’s very emotional for me,” said Diana Nielson as she stood on the street in front of South Whidbey High School Wednesday morning. “It takes me back to the 60s and the Vietnam war and the young people then who stopped that war.”

Citing safety concerns, the campus of South Whidbey High School was closed Wednesday by Superintendent Jo Moccia, leaving parents, media and others unable to hear what students said during the protest.

Students in grades 9-12 were granted permission by the school board to participate in the walkout, seen as a lesson in civics. Parental permission was required for students in South Whidbey Middle School, grades 7 and 8.

The walkout was scheduled to last 17 minutes, representing the number of students and faculty gunned down last month in Parkland, Fla.

Nielson expressed concern for both the physical and emotional health of children growing up in the era of active shooter drills, gunfire on school grounds and mounting memorials to young victims.

“I’m really worried, not only for their safety but their mental health,” she said. “Their environment is more and more stressful.”

Parents and South Whidbey residents gathered in force with various signs on Maxwelton Road, lining up behind yellow caution tape that stretched across school parking lots. One activist organizer said at least 280 supporters came out; estimates of student participation ranged from 75 to 200.

Supporters’ signs read: “Protect Kids, Not Guns,” “We’re With You” and “You Are the Change We Need.”

Brook Willeford and Katrina Bentsen unfurled a huge banner that could not be missed.

Columns and columns of names were listed across its width with the words “We Stand With You – #guncontrolnow” painted in blue and red.

Bentsen said she created the sign using information gathered by Washington Post reporters. “It’s the names of all the people killed in mass shootings since 1966,” she said, adding that four or more people fatally shot defined “mass shooting” for the Post compilation.

“It doesn’t list all the other deaths and suicides by gun,” said Bentsen, a 1998 graduate of South Whidbey High School who has two small children.

Wearing a blue SWHS letter sweater, Bentsen said she came out “in solidarity for the students and with a message for our lawmakers.”

A few passersby remarked how the listing of names reminded them of the poignancy of the Vietnam Memorial Wall.

Diane Jhueck frequently wiped away tears.

“This is their place of safety to grow up and be kids,” said Jhueck, who helps organize POWER, People of Whidbey Elegantly Resisting. “I spent half the time crying. Sometimes it’s hard to remember people are dying and it’s kids. It’s kids.”

Jessica Johnson was one of several high school students who addressed classmates with megaphone in hand.

Johnson remembered the 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School by reading published anecdotes of their personality, actions and dreams. A video clip later appeared on Johnson’s Facebook page.

“Enough is enough. If our country’s kids are not safe in their own schools, we’re doing something wrong,” Johnson said in her speech. “The adults have failed us. But we cannot become discouraged. We have voices too and they are powerful. We will not be ignored.”

As the students headed back inside the school, streetside supporters chanted, “No silence, no violence.”

Rain Costello, 13, was one of several students who came out to see their parents or to thank supporters.

The seventh-grader said she plans to continue rallying for safe schools on March 24 in Seattle, one of many cities joining the Washington, D.C. March For Our Lives protest.

While being thrust in the middle of a decades-old controversial, political topic of gun reform is a lesson in civics, it’s not an easy lesson, Costello said.

“A lot of pressure is being put on our generation,” she said.

After the walkout, Elijah Frisbie ran across the lawn into the arms of her mother, Diana Nielson.

There, the two hugged for a long moment, turquoise blue hair of the teenager resting on the mother’s brown parka.

March for Our Lives community gathering and conversation; 7:30 p.m., March 22 at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts. Jessica Johnson, President of the South Whidbey High School’s Social Justice Club, and other students, will lead the evening. Also part of the discussion; school superintendent, Langley mayor and sheriff’s office.

Brook Willeford holds one end of a scroll listing the names of mass shootings victims since 1966. Katrina Bentsen, a 1998 SWHS graduate, made the sign based on a Washington Post compilation.

South Whidbey High School parents and other supporters joined in Wednesday’s national “Enough” school walkout aimed at reducing gun violence and remembering 17 students and faculty killed in Florida last month. They lined the road in front of the closed campus where students gathered.

South Whidbey students gather in front of the high school Wednesday morning as part of the national “Enough” school walkout. The campus was closed for the day as a safety precaution.