‘We thought we were gonna get shot’: Mesa Ridge students participate in statewide protest
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Students across Colorado walked out of school in protest on Wednesday. Students at Mesa Ridge High School say it's in response to recent school gun violence across the nation, the state, and a recent incident on their own campus.
On Sept. 12, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office (EPSO) said a report was made of multiple students at Mesa Ridge High School with weapons.
EPSO later confirmed it had arrested two students and confiscated a pistol and an airsoft gun found on campus. EPSO charged both students with unlawful handgun possession; however, the sheriff's office said it found no evidence that the students were planning to use the weapons on students or staff.
The incident came just two days after a student at Evergreen High School in the Denver metro area brought a gun to school and shot his fellow students before shooting and killing himself. The two students who were injured in the attack are still recovering in the hospital.
One of the student organizers for the Mesa Ridge High School walkout, Ethen Signor, says many students were frightened on Friday.
"It's just a very big scare, especially given Evergreen," explained Mesa Ridge High School student Ethen Signor.
He helped to organize the protest to call for lawmakers to increase gun restrictions and penalties for breaking gun laws.
"We need different changes to the consequences of the laws to break those laws and deter people who want to go out and shoot at our schools," said Signor, "My biggest concern is that there is a change between the laws and consequences. For instance, the students who were arrested only got class one misdemeanors. I think that stuff like that should definitely have felonies. I think that there should be much more deterrence and make it so that it's not as easy to go get a gun and to shoot up a school and not face as great consequences."
Another student who spoke with KRDO13 said they feared for their life on Friday.
"As students, we were scared because we didn't know what was happening. And I was there for the second lockdown, and we thought we were gonna get shot. So this is just to say, hey, this is an issue in America. This is an issue at our school, and there's something wrong with it," said Grayson Orona, a Mesa Ridge High School junior. "I actually considered, 'Is my life going to end?' Yeah, it was pretty shocking."
Mesa Ridge High School students wore all black, protesting gun violence in the nation.
The Everytown Research & Policy advocacy group reports at least 100 incidents where someone has fired a gun on school property in the United States in 2025 alone, with 32 deaths and 98 injuries from those shootings. That includes the assassination of Charlie Kirk on the Campus of Utah Valley State University.
A spokesperson for Widefield District 3 shared the following statement prior to demonstrations taking place:
"We respect the right of our students to exercise their First Amendment rights and express their opinions," the statement read in part. "For students who choose to walk out and protest, we ask that they do not disrupt the learning environment, and we encourage them to go to a safe space on school grounds for a limited amount of time."
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