ALEDO, Illinois-- Student organizers from Mercer County High School say they've reached an agreement with the school board, Saturday March 10.
Student protest organizers say they will not participate in the nationwide school walkout next Wednesday, in response to the Parkland, Florida school shooting, instead Mercer County students will organize a school assembly.
"It feels like a victory to us because we have worked with (the school district) and we were willing to work with them from the beginning... They finally came to us and said they were willing to work with us and we actually like the assembly idea better than the walkout itself,” says Cal Bigham, high school junior.
Before an agreement was reached, the school board threatened to take action against student protesters all together.
Bigham says the assembly will ultimately bring more students to the table to talk about ways to increase school safety.
"It's very important to us, a lot of people feel like in this small town of Aledo, nothing is going to happen here. There is always a possibility that something could happen, anything can happen at any given time. We just want...to make sure it does not happen to our school," says Bigham.
Student organizers plan to meet with the district superintendent and high school principal to work out the details for the assembly, Monday March, 12.