Wednesday March 14th was dubbed as National Walkout Day. On this day hundreds of colleges, high schools, and even elementary schools across the nation moved from their desk to participate in the protest. "We are the students, we are the victims, we are change, fight gun violence now!" student organizers wrote for one of the planned events. "High School students across the U.S.A, the way to fight back is here. There has been too much complacency on the part of politicians when it comes to gun violence. The time to act is now!" More walkouts are planned as April 20 will be 19 years since the terrible shooting in Columbine High School were 13 lives were taken. With these walkouts students are hoping to force change in the role that guns play in our community. Many of the students who are actively participating in these walkouts are often too young to vote. This is the only was they can have a voice in the community. I think they are doing a great job and they are making forward progression to changing a law that should have been change a long time ago.
Drew Myers, a student, noted that the school has lockdown drills about three times a semester. And it’s in those drills that he said he feels “helpless.” “There’s really nothing we can do if a shooter enters the building,” he told Fox News. “I find that the most chilling aspect of the whole thing: There’s really nothing you can do.” This brings up a really good point is that once a school shooter is active, what should the students do. It is completely different then a drill. A drill will never fully prepare someone to have to make decisions that are life or death. Students shouldn't even have to worry about someone walking into their classroom and opening fire. However, that is not the class, we live in a messed up society were this happens so much its not even that rare. “Seeing school shootings happen over and over again just really drives home the point that it seems so easy for these people to commit these acts, and you feel helpless in the drills because there’s nothing you can do,” Myers said, adding that he does not support arming teachers, a proposal put forth by the White House.
More than 185,000 students are expected to participate in the walkout, according to the latest numbers provided by a Women’s March spokesperson. And a map of participating schools on the event’s website shows the walkout has gone international – with schools in Ireland, Israel and Mexico participating, Fox News reported. Many schools will not punish students who participate in these walkouts. Penn State even posted on twitter that they will not punish student who apply to the school. This is a huge deal in my opinion as now there is nothing that should hold students from participating.
Another huge march that is coming up soon is on March 24th, 2018. It is "March for Our Lives" and rallies for it are scheduled nationwide for demonstrators to protest gun violence. There is strength in numbers, if enough people are compassionate about this topic and actively participate, change will be made. It is in our hands to change and if not completely stop school shooting we can hopefully make them very scarce.
