SAN LUIS — Fifty students at Centennial High School in San Luis participated in a slightly different approach to Wednesday’s Student Walk Out Day. They stood up for their own safety and that of their peers.

“Standing up” meant making themselves known to the U.S. Congress, state legislators and others who can make a difference in their world.

Teacher Lauren Murphy said each student made phone calls, wrote letters and left messages emphasizing gun violence awareness.

They want to feel safe at school and reduce the chance for gun violence in their town, Murphy said.

She said the students did this in hopes that the effort by a small school to personally act to effect change by contacting elected officials at all levels would spread to larger schools until thousands of students are making personal contact.