The Viacom television network showed solidarity with students in its audience by suspending all scheduled programming on Nickelodeon, MTV, BET and other channels for 17 minutes during a nationwide walkout from schools against gun violence.
Thousands of students across the U.S. participated in the National Walkout Day on Wednesday morning by leaving their classrooms in protest of gun violence while honoring the 17 lives lost in last month’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, People magazine reported.
As students marched, giant Viacom – which also owns Paramount Network, Comedy Central, TV Land and CMT – went dark.
The “pause” was a tribute to the 17 people killed in the Parkland shooting, as well “to all young victims of gun violence,” Viacom said in a statement, per Vanity Fair.
MTV and Comedy Central also opted to alter their logos to orange, the color chosen to honor lives lost to gun violence.
The campaign, which is driven by Wear Orange, noted that orange “expresses our collective hope as a nation — a hope for a future free from gun violence.”
Shari Redstone, vice chair of Viacom’s board, also pledged to donate $500,000 to the March for Our Lives movement, which is spearheaded by students demanding that action be taken to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings.
“We have grown up watching more tragedies occur and continuously asking: Why?” said Kaylee Tyner, a 16-year-old junior at Columbine High School who participated in the school walkout, The New York Times reported.
“People say it’s all about gun control, it’s all about, ‘We should ban guns,’” said Caleb Conrad, 16. “But that’s not the real issue here. The real issue is the people who are doing it.”
Another junior, Armaria Broyles, said that violence comes in many forms.
“We all want a good community and we all want to make a change.”
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