TYLER — On the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting, more than 2,000 school walkouts took place across the country to protest gun violence in schools.

However, at Robert E. Lee High School in Tyler, only one student participated, with the support of his family.

"I don’t want other people to be scared to go to school," Samuel McNeill, a Robert E. Lee High School senior said. "For the fear that someone’s going to show up with a gun and kill them. Or shoot them, injure them. Kill their friends.”

McNeill said his guardian signed a pass so he could walkout without fear of getting in trouble.

But to him, even the threat of trouble was worth it.

“I chose to walk out today because I feel like it’s important, and we need to stop gun violence with stricter gun control laws, we need to close the loophole, the gun show loophole, that it makes it where people don’t have to get a background check before they take a gun home,” McNeill said.

He said this issue hits especially close to home, after Robert E. Lee had a threat of their own earlier this year.

McNeill stated six other students at REL tried to walk out without a pass, but were all given ISS before they could get off school grounds.

“I think it’s ridiculous," McNeill said. "They shouldn't be threatening ISS for people exercising free speech, especially when it’s something that effects them too.”

McNeill believes the school should be supporting students on this day, not fighting against them.

"I don’t think it’s right that they are trying to punish us from protesting something that affects us.”

CBS19 reached out to the Tyler Independent School District for comment and received the following statement:

As always, Tyler ISD follows the Student Code of Conduct for truancy and attendance. Today, we will continue to have classroom engagement as usual.