The South Whidbey School District is expecting that most of its high school and some middle school students will participate in the “Enough” walkout today.

It’s an action that should be viewed with both pride and sadness.

It’s been about a month since a gunman opened fire with an AR-15 rifle at the Marjory Stonemason Douglas High School in Florida and killed 17 students and faculty members. Since then, survivors and students from across the nation have led a call for stricter gun control laws.

These young people have helped to focus the national dialogue on the issue like never before.

It remains to be seen whether politicians across the country will act on this student-led effort.

The group EMPOWER organized the national walkout at schools and universities across the nation. It’s a protest, a call to action and a memorial.

The students have said they will walk out of the high school at 10 a.m. for 17 minutes, a number that represents each of the lives lost in the Marjorie Stonemason slaughter.

A group of South Whidbey students who organized the local walkout alerted the school board to the plan during a meeting. They spoke passionately about their reasons for the action.

In response, the board directed the district to allow the walkout as a civil opportunity under school policies.

There’s nothing more American than acts of peaceful civil disobedience. A poignant protest like this one can have a profound effect on the culture, even if it doesn’t result in immediate change in laws.

It’s an important lesson for students to learn.

It’s also tragic that students feel compelled to stage a protest over gun control and school shootings. Schools are still a safe space for the most part, but students may not feel that way. They are growing up in a time when schools are talked about as targets for madmen with guns, and they want that to change.

It’s now up to adults to make the changes necessary to make schools safer. That doesn’t mean arming teachers. We need to consider a ban on assault-style rifles and bump stocks. Background checks should be stricter.

It’s not going to be an easy road, but it’s encouraging to see young people are leading the way, much like they did during the 1960s.