Courtlin Arrington is the school shooting victim almost everyone forgot about

Today, students across the country participated in a national school walkout to protest the ongoing epidemic of gun violence in America's schools.

Students walked out of their classrooms for 17 minutes to symbolize 17 school shootings that have already taken place this year — but a school shooting that claimed a single victim, Courtlin Arrington of Birmingham, Alabama, has been largely left out of that count.

But that's not the fault of the student protestors — it's all about what the media (us included) chooses to cover and care about.

Arrington, 17, was a senior at Huffman High School who was planning on going to nursing school. Her uncle described her as " driven, beautiful, smart, silly." She was shot once through the heart by a classmate, Michael Jerome Barber, who was also injured in the shooting.

Barber has since been charged with manslaughter for Arrington's death after video footage revealed the shooting wasn't an accident as initially believed.

Why have the shooting at Huffman High and Arrington's death, flown under the radar, especially compared to incidents at other schools across the country? The fact that she was the only casualty might have something to do with it — but Arrington's race and the region the shooting took place in obviously play a major role.

Arrington's story has gotten play on Twitter and other social media sites, but it's still woefully absent in the media at large.

In order to tackle the problem with school shootings and gun violence in America, it needs to be acknowledged everywhere and every time it happens.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

● The man accused of assaulting and murdering her had been accused of assault before — so why was he allowed to work at her high school?

● A teenage girl was assaulted at gunpoint. One year later, she was murdered by the same man

@k80way