Return to Transcripts main page
Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
The Parkland Diaries. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired March 23, 2018 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:00:31] EMMA GONZALEZ, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS SURVIVOR: This should have been fixed years and years and years ago. What can we do to stop this from continuing? I'm supposed to be recovering. The rest of us are supposed to be recovering, and we can't do that. We can't do that because they're still going to be happening.
SAMANTHA FUENTES, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS SURVIVOR: I know this might be really graphic to watch, and I know that this isn't really something people want to see. But this is what I have to deal with right now. They did a really good job. And I don't deny that. But I'm in a lot of pain.
DAVID HOGG, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS SURVIVOR: It's 5:53 a.m., and it's my first day back to school since the shooting. I don't know how I feel. I feel angry. I just know I have to go back and continue to work even when our politicians won't.
SAMANTHA GRADY, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS SURVIVOR: In the morning, I usually meet up with my friend Helena, and unfortunately she's not there. It was -- I was kind of lost as to what to do. We went exactly where the exact same spot as the shooter. He targeted that spot where I was. I mean it's by a miracle that I wasn't shot because I was like right there.
CAMERON KASKY, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS SURVIVOR: I'm in a weird mood right now. I don't really know what's going on. Marco Rubio needs to calm down, OK? He really got his feelings hurt, and I get that. But he needs to get over himself. He's like -- he's acting out, and it's funny. Sometimes I forget that we are the high schoolers here.
ALEX WIND, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS SURVIVOR: Last night me and a couple of friends went back to the memorials. It's important to see why we're all doing what we're doing. So I'm going to be going back there every day, and I'm crying, and I'm going to be sitting at each grave and, um, just embracing it because 17 people died. And we can't forget about them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 911, what is your emergency?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just got a call from Douglas High School. A female on the line advises me there's a shooter at the school.
FUENTES: So we heard the first two shots in the hallway behind me, and everyone froze. We were under the impression it was like some kind of drill. And then the third shot was fired, and that's when everyone in the room realized what was happening.
GRADY: I heard the shots. I didn't move, and my friend Helena got up, and she pushed my shoulder and said, Sam. And then I got up, and then I'm like this is real.
FUENTES: Me and Samantha Grady were in the same class together. We did run to the same area. We were sitting in the same corner with a handful of kids.
GRADY: There was a fact running through my head. I'm not going to die. I knew I was not going to die today.
FUENTES: The shooter came up to the window and started firing pretty indiscriminately across the room. And when I heard the shots, I dove to the floor and most likely hit my head on the way down.
GRADY: He shot, and I felt the heaviness of the bullet. I still didn't really believe I got shot until I seen the wounds for myself. And I'm like, oh, this is real. This actually happened.
FUENTES: I was shot directly one time in the leg, and then all of the other injuries are just of shrapnel from whatever bounced off the walls or the students that were next to me. And right here, here, and then along my face is where I got hit with shrapnel and above my eye.
[21:05:03] He just kept firing over and over again, and Nick and like Helena, they didn't make it. They got shot next to me as I was huddled next to all these other kids.
GRADY: I just seen my best friend die, and I remember thinking that. And then I -- I'm like crying, and then I'm like I can't -- I can't do that because he's still here, he's still here because at that time he was still shooting into the classroom. I didn't want to, like, bring any attention to me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has everybody told their parents they're OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So right now we're in a school. An active shooter. It's not a drill. And it's currently, it's 2:52. I heard gun -- I heard one gunshot. We thought it was a drill initially, but it's not. We don't know if the person's been taken down. And we're currently hiding in culinary (class).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hopefully I live through this.
HOGG: I started recording thinking that whether or not it was a drill didn't really matter because if it was, I would be able to expose what it's like to think you're in this scenario. And if it wasn't, I knew that if our 65 souls were left behind on that classroom floor, hopefully our voices would echo on.
At around 2:30 we heard a gunshot in my science class. We heard more gunshots, and that was when we realized this was not a drill. This was life or death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My daughters called me and texted me, said there's a shooter. She's hiding in the back of a closet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sir. The police and fire department are on-scene working an active shooter incident.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Student in classroom 1255 says somebody is pushing on her door. Is that a police officer?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's going to be 1255, 1255 is going to be us. Have her open her door. Have her open her door right now.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You were with your brother when the shooting took place?
KASKY: Yes, and Holden was the calmest person in the room because I didn't have the heart to tell him what was going on. Holden has special needs. I couldn't tell him that there was a shooter. We had no idea where the shooter was, and we were hearing loud noises. Every time there was somebody walking past our door, we didn't know if it was going to be the person who was going to execute us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just got a call saying that there was a school shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're aware of the case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it's true?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. There is a school shooting in Parkland.
KASKY: One of the scariest things was that there were some low functioning, developmentally disabled students in the classroom who weren't sure what was going on, who weren't sure of the stakes, and they were making noises. There was a young man who was in a way wailing. One of these children who didn't know what was going on could have accidentally attracted the shooter because we didn't know what was happening. And the second the SWAT team broke in our window and came in, I didn't know if that was a shooter.
HOGG: All right. So we made it out.
(OFF-MIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Raise your hands.
FUENTES: We tried taking like Nick's pulse, and he was gone. And we tried checking Helena's, but she was like shot in the chest, and she was gone pretty much instantly.
GRADY: Helena was definitely my guardian angel on that day because she propelled me to move, it made me get into a position that was less exposed to the shooter. The fact that I'm sitting in this chair speaking is very much so contributed to Helena and what she did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire rescue has set up a command post here and is treating the injured.
FUENTES: For like 20 minutes I had to sit in a corner with two dead bodies next to me, covered in blood, bleeding on everyone else, until the SWAT team got there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This appears to be a young lady who is conscious and alert. They're talking to the paramedics as she's put in the back of that fire rescue vehicle.
FUENTES: He lifted me from like my arms. I looked back, and I saw, like, Nick and like Helena like laying next to each other, and I was like -- that's the last time I was going to see them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Now, I want to introduce Emma Gonzalez.
(APPLAUSE)
GONZALEZ: They said no laws that could have been able to prevent the hundreds of senseless tragedies that occurred. We call B.S. that us kids don't know what wore talking about, that we're too young to understand how the government works, we call B.S.
[21:10:05] HOGG: The March came five days after the shooting.
KASKY: We have to do it all across the nation so our voices will be will be heard.
HOGG: This revolution had begun, and it was never going to stop.
FUENTES: I hope to take this experience and make the hugest difference I can. I want to -- I want to do more than anyone could ever do.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You'll take this and put it to an incredible cause because of what you've seen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TRUMP: (INAUDIBLE), how are you?
FUENTES: Good. How are you?
TRUMP: Doing OK?
FUENTES: Yes, I'm OK.
TRUMP: That's good. I spoke with your governor, and he said you're a fan, but I'm a fan of yours, OK? I just wanted to make sure you're good. So were you very seriously hurt?
FUENTES: I was so lucky. Like I got shrapnel in the back of my eye. I was so close to losing my legs and my eyes, but it's a miracle.
TRUMP: So you saw this whole thing taking place. You saw him, right?
FUENTES: Yes, I saw the shooter. I saw when he shot my friends. I saw -- he was aiming through the window and everything.
TRUMP: Samantha, and you're going to be OK. I mean ultimately you're going to be fine.
[21:15:03] FUENTES: Yes. I hope to take this experience and make the hugest difference I can. I want to -- I want to do more than anyone could ever do.
TRUMP: Yes, you'll take this and put to an incredible cause because what you've seen, boy --
FUENTES: I was in the hospital, and I received a call from Donald Trump. I lightly kind of alluded to the idea of change to him because I didn't want to seem like very aggressive, especially because I had just gotten shot. But like I was already riled up and I was already so angry about it.
TRUMP: Did you see rage? Did you see like a rage in his eyes or something or --
FUENTES: It's like he had absolutely no emotion at all.
TRUMP: No emotion?
FUENTES: None.
TRUMP: No emotion?
FUENTES: Whatsoever.
TRUMP: Boy, oh, boy. What a sick puppy that was. What a disgusting person. Well, we're really happy you're OK, and I mean it's just -- it's just incredible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, I want to introduce Emma Gonzalez.
(APPLAUSE)
GONZALEZ: If us students have learned anything is that if you don't study, you will fail. And in this case, if you actively do nothing, people continually end up dead. So it's time to start doing something. To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you.
(CHEERS & APPLAUSE)
CROWD: Shame on you. Shame on you.
GONZALEZ: Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have ever been done to prevent this. We call B.S. They say that tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence. We call B.S. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call B.S. They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars. We call B.S. They say that no laws could have been able to prevent the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call B.S. That us kids don't know what we're talking about, that we're too young to understand how the government works, we call B.S. If you agree, register to vote. Contact your local Congress people. Give them a piece of your mind.
(CHEERS & APPLAUSE)
HOGG: This speech going viral for the movement meant a lot because it showed that we were being serious, that we weren't going to let people forget about this. This was our first really campaign rally, I guess you could say. The idea of a march came five days after the shooting. But what eventually happened is more and more people started signing up, and then we started getting supporters like George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey. After having all the initial momentum in say three days after, before the real criticism started coming in.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Social media accounts picked up false claims of students who saw their friends and teachers die were crisis actors.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: The suggestion that some of these students' grief has been co-opted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crisis actors who travel to the sites of shootings to instigate fury against guns.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Activists. They appear to have been coached.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we really think 17-year-olds on their own are going to plan a nationwide rally?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why is it four kids out of 3,000, and why are they all in the drama club?
Here is David Hogg, who can't remember his lines while being interviewed for television.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The media is focusing on an agenda.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gun control agenda.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A political agenda from the American left and the Democrat Party. This is totally political.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of these accusations are now being promoted by the President's own son.
Don Junior liked some of these on Twitter.
COOPER: David, Kevin, I appreciate you being with us. David, first of all, that Donald Trump Jr. is liking tweets, espousing a conspiracy theory involving you and your dad, I'm wondering what goes through your mind when you hear that?
HOGG: I'm a son of a former FBI agent, and that is true. But as such, it is also true that I went -- that I go to Stoneman Douglas High School, and I was a witness to this. I'm not a crisis actor. I'm somebody that had to witness this and live through this, and I continue to have to do that. But I'm also -- it's just -- it's unbelievable to me that these people are even saying this. And the fact that Donald Trump Jr. liked that post is disgusting to me.
The fact that these people are being criticized -- critical of me as a witness and personally as a victim to this incident and having to witness this and live through it again and again, it's unbelievable.
GONZALEZ: I didn't ask for any of this. None of us asked to be put in this situation, and the core members especially did not ask for this type of notoriety.
[21:20:06] I had no idea that my speech was going to be broadcast nationally. My mom killed her battery trying to film it because she didn't think it was going to be anywhere.
My name is a household name now. Type in "E" in the search bar, and Emma Gonzalez speech shows up. That's not me. I used to be a person, and I don't feel like anything anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will be the people that change America, that change the world. We have to do it all across the nation so our voices will be heard.
WIND: We were preparing for the town hall that night, greeting kids that were walking out and thanking them because it showed that it happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, but it affected the entire county.
CROWD: No more silence. End gun violence.
WIND: Some kids marching ten miles. Some kids marching five. Some kids marching 15 miles to our school to show this solidarity, to show this unity with us and what we were doing. It just shows that everything we were doing means something.
KASKY: It was completely word of mouth. We got texts saying, oh, come let's go to Tallahassee.
COOPER: It was a week after the shooting. Some students went to Tallahassee to try to lobby lawmakers.
KASKY: I wasn't in Tallahassee. I stayed behind to continue doing press.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys are being watched by the entire nation.
KASKY: And I got to hear texts of them saying, well, this politician didn't bother to show up, or this politician side stepped the problem.
I got to see just how filthy and pathetic our lawmakers are, and that was important for us because that made us realize that we can't sit back and expect change. We have to demand it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do we want?
CROWD: Gun control. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When do we want it?
CROWD: Now.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to bring in Cameron Kasky. He's a junior and he has a question for Senator Rubio. Cameron?
KASKY: Senator Rubio, can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA in the future?
(CHEERS & APPLAUSE)
TAPPER: The question is about NRA money.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R) FLORIDA: So, number one, the positions I hold on these issues of the Second Amendment, I've held since the day I entered office in the city of West Miami as an elected official.
Number two --
(OFF-MIC)
RUBIO: No, the answer to the question is that people buy into my agenda, and I do support the Second Amendment, and I also support the right of you everyone here to be able to go to school and be safe. And I do support any law that would keep guns out of the hands of a deranged killer. And that's why I support the things I have stood for and --
KASKY: More NRA money?
RUBIO: That is the wrong way to look -- first of all, the answer is people buy into my agenda.
KASKY: You can say no.
RUBIO: Well, I just think that ultimately that is not our goal here. Our goal here is to move forward.
KASKY: Hold on. Right now in the name of 17 people, you cannot ask the NRA to keep their money out of your campaign?
RUBIO: I think in the name of 17 people, I can pledge to you that I will support any law that will prevent a killer like this --
KASKY: No, but I'm talking NRA money.
RUBIO: No. No, because --
KASKY: As a matter of fact, I bet we can get people in here to give you exactly as much money as the NRA would have.
RUBIO: But it's not --
KASKY: I understand.
RUBIO: And you're right.
KASKY: Can you stand up and commit to that real quick?
I'm in a weird mood right now. I don't really know what's going on, but more people are dropping the NRA, which is pretty funny. And, oh, my god, Rubio today, that kid. Marco Rubio needs to calm down, OK? He really got his feelings hurt, and I get that. But he needs to get over himself because at first he was taking it like a champ, and I was like, you know what, Rubio? Good for you. But now he's like -- he's acting out, and it's funny. Sometimes I forget that we are the high schoolers here.
[21:24:36] GONZALEZ: I can't deal with this continuing to happen. This should have been fixed years and years and years ago. I can't -- I can't do anything.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FUENTES: So this might be really real, but essentially the scabbing on my face fell out and all the stitches fell out, which is what they're supposed to do.
I know this might be really graphic to watch, and I know that this isn't really something people want to see, but this is -- this is what I have to deal with right now. They did a really good job. And I don't deny that. But I'm in a lot of pain, and like I've never been faced with this kind of pain before, and I just wanted to tell you that, like, that should hurts and I'm not feeling it.
WIND: So today was an incredible day. Just got back from Washington, D.C. I was able to speak to the Democratic caucus today, which was absolutely incredible, and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan who met with us and spoke with us about policy, which was a very good meeting. And we're going to get a lot done in this country. As I'm about to go to sleep, I just need to remember that I'm going back to school tomorrow, and it's going to be scary. It's going to be tough. But I'm going to get through this, and I'm going to survive, and it's going to be OK.
[21:30:15] I just got to lace up my shoes, put on my pants, put on my shirt, and get out because if I don't go, then who is that helping? It's not helping anyone. It's only hurting myself. So I need to go.
HOGG: So right now it's 5:53 a.m., and it's my first day back to school since the shooting. I don't know how I feel. I feel weird. I feel angry. I just know that I have to go back to continue to learn and work, even when our politicians won't. No bill has been passed. None of our glass have been replaced, (inaudible) able to be locked from the inside. Right now, all we have is more guns, which is terrifying.
KASKY: Hey, I've got school today for the first time since, you know, valentine's day. Last night we had our first meeting as a team in maybe four or five days, but you got to remember, right now it feels like forever. So it was good to be with everybody. And, um, you know, going to school is going to be interesting. Probably going to be bittersweet. Hopefully not just bitter. GRADY: So today was the first day of school. In the morning I usually meet up with my friend Helena, and unfortunately she's not there. And it was -- I was kind of lost as to what to do. I mean the first thing I do as soon as I get to school is text her like, oh, my goodness, where are you? Then I was unable to text her and had to keep reminding myself of that, which is not a good reminder. I don't want to go back there. I didn't feel like I should go back there. Walking into the class in which all the people there, we had the same experience, we're kind of like family. And it's good to know that other people went through the same experiences as you did, especially in that corner we went through a lot together. We literally went through a gun shooting together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dalton High School in northern Georgia closed today after a teacher barricaded himself in a classroom and fired a gun out a window.
GONZALEZ: I got home a little while ago, and I found out that there's been another shooting at Dalton High in Dalton, Georgia. I'm so close to losing my (bleep) mind, and nobody seems to know about it. I don't want to be the person to tell my friends that this happened again. They're just getting back into their daily lives. I can't tell my friend who was crying in class today, hugging a support stuffed animal, that this happened to somebody else. Thankfully nobody died in Georgia, but I can't -- I can't deal with this continuing to happen.
This should have been fixed years and years and years ago, and the fact that there are politicians who still openly support the opposition against us, what can we do to stop this from continuing? I'm supposed to be recovering. The rest of us are supposed to be recovering, and we can't do that. We can't do that if things are still going to be happening. And the fact that they are still happening, I can't -- because I can't do anything.
[21:34:34] FUENTES: Buildings don't like have a pulse, and they don't have arms or legs, but it always feels like it's going to run towards me. You know what I mean? In a way. Even though it's just a building. I just need some kind of closure, some kind of explanation that I know that I'll never really get.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FUENTES: All right. So we're back to school. We're back to school. Here we are just laying in my bed at 8:40 p.m. at night.
I'm finishing the rest of my schooling online. I'm physically recovering, and I have so many doctors' appointments and like engagements that I need to be at. So I'd be missing a lot of school anyways.
It's weird because I'm not sitting in a classroom full of students, not talking to anybody. Just I'm here by myself, and I guess I kind of miss that. But then again, like school isn't the way it used to be, I suppose. So, like, I'm missing something that isn't really a reality for me right now. [21:40:39] It's weird that like buildings don't have souls and they don't have arms or legs but it feels like it's going to run toward me, you know what I mean? In a way. Even though it's just a building. I've grown up with this building. Like I've had so many classes and so many experiences. There's like so many like good memories associated with it, but now like every possible good memory you can have in that building is completely canceled. Like there's no way you can fix what's been done. I just need some kind of closure, some kind of explanation that I know that I'll never really get.
GRADY: My faith means everything to me. God, in my opinion, he's the one who really like saved me during the whole incident that occurred. And the fact that I didn't get hurt as badly as I could have is, in my words, a miracle.
There was a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. I was in a classroom in which the shooter shot at, and I did get shot twice. No matter what you go through, you don't even know what's behind the scenes, but God knows everything. So I hope this song encourages you.
"God is too wise to be mistaken."
If I didn't have my faith, if I didn't have the support of the church, I wouldn't be as sane as I am at the moment. One thing that I've heard that you have to forgive the person who did it. I forgive him in the sense that I'm not completely overwhelmed with anger just hearing his name.
Although I'm still angry right now because of everything that happened, but it's a different type of anger. It's the anger that drives me to do a movement, to go forward. That's the anger that I have now.
The never again movement is very, very important to me because if certain things were already, you know, solid, like gun laws having less loopholes, I would still have my best friend next to me. I don't want anyone else to experience what I have experienced.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 6078, 50 days, Mr. Speaker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the bill passes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This bill would raise the age to purchase a firearm to 21 years old from 18 years old. It would require a three- day waiting period to buy a firearm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will allow teachers to carry guns.
To the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, you made your voices heard. You didn't let up, and you fought until there was change. You helped change our state. You made a difference. You should be proud. Now let's sign the bill.
(APPLAUSE)
GONZALEZ: With the bill that was passed, it's a good thing. It's a good first step, and it's important. But it also had the provision for arming some teachers, so I'm not 100 percent with it.
All we can do is hope for the little things in the beginning and hope that they build up and make them build up and force ourselves into the offices of these people so that they can't back away from this. They think they've satiated this. They think we're just -- we're good now. We gave them what they want. It's fine. They'll leave us alone now. That's not -- not in any way what's going to happen. They haven't seen the worst of us yet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Being a victim of gun violence has nothing to do with my stance on the Second Amendment or the rights of the free people of the United States of America.
COOPER: There has been a lot of pushback from adults who say, look, why should a group of kids be telling adults what rights they should and shouldn't have in terms of firearms?
GONZALEZ: Because it's what happened with the Vietnam war. The voting age got pushed down from 21 to 18 because people were being drafted against their will because they hadn't voted for the war that the country was involved in.
[21:45:03] Same thing's happening here. We're being treated like we're in a war zone. We were never drafted for this war. We shouldn't be placed in situations where we're constantly being torn between do I hide behind someone? Do I jump in front of someone? Will my teacher, who might potentially be armed, have to shoot someone that they've known for the past three years? Will they accidentally shoot me in the crossfire? We know what's going on, and just because we're young doesn't mean that we're blind to what's happening.
(MUSIC)
KASKY: Everybody on my team, we looked at each and we said, we have changed the world. Leaders don't create followers. They create other leaders. We led this fight, and from that, everybody is stepping up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
[21:50:26] KASKY: Hey, everyone, it's Kam, I'm going home right now. I thought I would, you know, explain how the day went. We were all working on things together today. It was a good day. Because any time all of us are in the same place it's a good day.
We get close but we don't get enough anymore. We're so effective when it's -- all of us together that we need to make sure we prioritize that.
COOPER: It's great that you guys feel look in speaking out, but why should a bunch of kids tell adults what they can't do?
KASKY: Well, we are the kids from the ruins of the system that they destroyed. If you look at the system right now, its manipulation lies, deceived, corruption. They failed. At the end of the day, that's the word used, failure. The generations before us have completely corrupted any sort of political system that would have made this country great we are stepping forward and saying, we are rebuilding the world that you destroyed around us.
HOGG: When we forget why we have to get out and vote, these children's lives are taken, but we're not going to let that happen, we're going to take this to midterms, we're going to take this across the nation, and across the world, because our future is too important.
(CHEERS & APPLAUSE)
HOGG: Thank you. Thank you so much.
So after we started the movement there were a few other people that were like, hey, I can't make it to D.C., so what can I do in my city. And we eventually came up with the idea of sister marches, which is basically marching in your city starting your own march. We have over 600 marches worldwide just unbelievable support from all around. And it shows that there is change coming because if not now, with these politicians. It will be with the next generations, because we will out live them.
BERMAN: We got live pictures right there from Parkland Florida, students walking out of class to protest gun violence.
HOGG: This is just an outpouring of support from around the nation, around the country and around the world too, where students are standing up (inaudible) and we're really working together to make sure that these 17 people are remembered.
I think it's a good prelude to the march.
GRADY: Whether at the march or at the walkout we all walk, stood and then honored those who we lost.
We love you Helena, we love you always and forever.
(MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Students from Florida to California have marched out of their classrooms today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At a time when the country is politically divided. An unprecedented sign of unity across the nation.
BERMAN: 17 minutes of protests, to honor the 17 victims of the massacre.
(MUSIC)
FUENTES: At this point as students and future voters, our ideas are not being represented in office. In fact, they're getting us killed, they're getting us shot, and injured and mentally scarred forever. And how is that fair to us? It's not. And that's when we put our foot down. That's when we decide that enough is enough. And that never again is a legitimate phrase.
(MUSIC)
COOPER: In March 24th will be a success how? If what?
GONZALEZ: When we see the enormity of how far it reaches. How many people go out in the streets?
COOPER: You want to see the streets full?
GONZALEZ: I want to see the streets filled with people. Even if you can't march, like this walk outside of your house. It counts.
(MUSIC)
COOPER: So for you to see schools around the country, kids around the country walking out. That had a big impact?
KASKY: Everyone on my team, we looked at each other and we said, this is -- we have changed the world. And I say this all the time, leaders don't create followers, they create other leaders. We led this fight and from that, everybody is stepping up.
(MUSIC)
[21:55:13] WIND: Seventeen people died. We can't forget about them. Because without them change wouldn't happen. Change is happening. I can see it on the horizon. We can't let people forget about the 17 that sacrificed their lives. And I think that is the most important thing.
(MUSIC)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Tomorrow, students from Parkland and hundreds of thousands of others in our nation's capitol and around our country will march for the change that they're demanding. It's a march that may turn out to be like any we've seen before.
Stay with CNN for full coverage tomorrow. This has been an AC 360 Special Report, "The Parkland Diaries."
Good night.
