Columbia, SC (WLTX) - South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster says school protests that happened in his state and around the nation were "shameful" and coordinated by left-wing groups.
McMaster was asked about the events that took place Wednesday in cities across the U.S. The protests--which featured thousands of high schoolers--were designed to call for a reduction of gun violence, including new restrictions on assault-style weapons.
Related Coverage: Students Across the Nation Walk Out Over Violence
Organizers designed the protest in the wake of last month's massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that left 17 dead.
But McMaster said the effort was political, and believes a nationwide group is essentially pulling the strings on the effort--not schoolchildren.
"I understand that there's a left-wing group that is coordinating this around the country. It appears that these schoolchildren, innocent schoolchildren, are being used as a tool by these left-wing groups to further their own agenda," he said. "It is not about the tragedy it is not about the school children or what we should all do."
Related Coverage: SC School District to Punish Students for Walking Out
When asked, McMaster's office told News19 McMaster was referring to a group called EMPOWER.
"What these students should do and should do and I imagine a lot of them tend to do is to pray and to hope for the families of those who were slain," he went on to say. "But this is a tricky move I believe by a left-wing group from the information I've seen to use these children as a tool to further their own means.
"It sounds like a protest to me it's not a memorial, it's certainly not a prayer service, it's a political statement by a left-wing group and it's shameful."