As protests and marches break out across the nation in response to gun violence, it is students who are taking the lead in pushing for change.
Student activism has risen after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida that left 17 students and teachers dead. Just days after the shooting, survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School put together the March for Our Lives movement, set to take place March 24 in Washington, D.C. and in other communities throughout the country, including Philadelphia. The students organizing the event expect up to 500,000 people to participate in the march in Washington.
“I’m just a high school student, and I do not pretend to have all of the answers,” Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Cameron Kasky wrote in an op-ed for CNN. “However, even in my position, I can see that there is desperate need for change,” he continued.
The march taking place next month is not the only demonstration the students from Parkland have put together. On Wednesday, Feb. 21 the students rallied in Tallahassee and later in the night joined a town hall on CNN. This is a contrast to how long public attention to mass shootings has lasted historically, as the students seek to prolong the conversation long after the shooting took place.
“Parents do the right thing by sending their kids to school to grow academically and socially, and in return their children get slaughtered,” said West Chester University political science major Amanda Mills who intends to join the March for Our Lives event in Washington next month.
Among other protests is the student-led National School Walkout in which high school students are encouraged to leave class at 10 a.m. on April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine shooting. On Twitter, students behind the protest claim, “We are students, we are victims, we are change.” The movement was created on Twitter with a petition on change.org two days after the Parkland shooting. The creator is a high school sophomore named Lane Murdock, who had no previous experience with activism before forming the campaign.
A shorter walkout was created by the Women’s March, in which students across the country who participate will walk out of class for 17 minutes. The National School Walkout was not created by youth organizers, but teenagers are being promoted on their Twitter and Instagram platforms as helping plan the event.
“I think it’s telling,” said West Chester University Political Science Professor Jenna Becker Kane; “It is reflective of greater awareness. That should be a message to legislature. Young students are active and paying attention.”
In anticipation of the student walkouts, some districts are warning students that if they participate, they will face consequences. A superintendent at a school district in Texas wrote in a Facebook post that any students who participate in a walkout will receive a three-day suspension.
“A school is a place to learn and grow educationally, emotionally and morally,” wrote Superintendent Curtis Rhodes of Needville Independent School District. “A disruption of the school will not be tolerated,” he continued. The post was later deleted.
Admissions officials at MIT said on Thursday that any student who applies to their university will not have their chances of acceptance negatively impacted by being suspended for joining the protests.
Smaller protests at schools across the country are continuing, some being pre-planned and some occurring in the spur of the moment.
Demi Milas is a fourth-year student majoring in communication studies with a minor in journalism. ✉ DM829393@wcupa.edu.