Counter-point
AMERICAN STUDENTS WALKED OUT OF CLASSROOMS TO PROTEST GUN VIOLENCE AFTER EXPERIENCING 20 SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY SHOOTINGS ACROSS THE COUNTRY THIS YEAR ALONE
Last Friday tens of thousands of students across the US walked out of classes to protest the rising number of school shootings in recent years. This nationwide event took place on the 19th anniversary of the shootings at Columbine high school in Colorado where 12 students and a teacher were murdered and the teenaged gunmen were slain. Since the beginning of this year there have been 20 school and university shootings with casualties.
Shortly before the Columbine commemoration a 19-year old in a Florida high school ired
through a classroom door with a shotgun, wounding one boy and demonstrating just how perilous the situation is.
Students taking part in the walk-out carried placards proclaiming, “We Deserve To Live Without Fear” and “I Will Not Be Another Statistic.” Children held up their hands on which they had written, “Don’t Shoot.” A student who did not demonstrate outside her school but in front of the White House carried a poster stating, “I should be writing an essay, not my will.”
My granddaughter who lives in a small town on the west coast took part in the protest along with 800 students and parents. A day or two after the February 14th school shooting that slew 17 — 14 students and three teachers — at the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, my granddaughter’s school had an emergency lock-down.
Although this incident was a false alarm, students were shaken and remain sensitised to what they
see is a constant threat hanging over their heads. When I asked her if she plans to register and vote in the November Congressional election, she replied, “We have registered. Here we can register at 17 so we can vote at 18 in the fall.”
I suggested she consult the Washington Post’s list of Congress members who receive campaign funds from the National Rile
Association (NRA), the majority being Republicans. The NRA is not the only organisation providing funds to candidates. Weapons manufacturers, gun fair organisers and dealers are also involved. Sites on the internet also keep track of donations.
Gracie Shirley, a senior at a high school in Salt Lake City, Utah, was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “We are the school shooting generation. We’ve never lived in a time when there hasn’t been mass shootings and so I think we’re done.” She and fellow students are no longer prepared to face danger at school, a place they should feel safe.
The Post reported that since the Columbine shootings, 131 children, teachers and others have been killed, 272 have been injured, and more than 208,000 students at 212 schools have been exposed to gun violence. Children who witness or are present in school premises during attacks can be deeply traumatised.
The very threat of school shooters can also be particularly traumatising for young children. In anticipation of shooters, schools in the US now carry out lock-downs and drills designed to foil gunmen (as nearly all school shooters are male) who enter with weapons with the intention of killing
pupils and/or teachers. These measures take place in classes for pre-schoolers and all grades. This practice can leave ive- and six
year olds, especially, traumatised throughout their educational careers or even their lives.
The idea for a walk-out on the anniversary of the Columbine massacre was put forward by Lane Murdock, 16, from Connecticut rather than by survivors of the Parkland, Florida shooting who generated the irst such event in
March. Murdock argued, “That America’s children are growing up in fear is something we’re not talking about. No child should have to learn how to hide from a shooter.” She told CNN that students can only use their attendance at school to exercise “power” and draw attention to the threat of school shooters stemming from the lack of gun control.
After expressing shame that she and her classmates did not react strongly to the Parkland shooting, she asserted, “We should be horriied, and we’re not.” She
drafted a change.org petition addressed to the US Senate and
the White House, a document that has attracted more than a quarter of a million signatures.
School staff were not permitted to endorse the latest walk-out but many indicated approval while being compelled to mark students absent. Many students submitted letters from their parents expressing support. Some schools, however, threatened students who participated with loss of privileges or suspended. Nevertheless, at least students from 2,500 schools joined the walk-out.
Havana Chapman-edwards, 7, a irst grade student in Alexandria,
Virginia, was the only pupil in her school to walk out. School administrators claimed they did not have enough staff to supervise a mass protest during the March and April events. This did not prevent this determined little girl from walking out with her placard reading, “We march for lives you fail to protect.” Her mother was waiting outside the school to receive her. Havana had also taken part in the March For Our Lives protest in Washington last month.
At some schools, the protests took provocative forms. For example, hundreds of Arizona students staged a “die-in” in the state capitol buildings in Phoenix to press for gun regulation. They were joined by two survivors from the Parkland high school.
During some demonstrations, gun control activists handed out voter registration forms to 17- and 18-year olds and urged them not only to register but also to cast ballots. Activists had done this also during the March protests.
Activists have launched a drive to register young voters in 10 key “swing” states where Nra-backed candidates are running for Senate and House of Representatives seats. These states include California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Florida. The last three voted for Nra-darling Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The focus is once again on teens who will be 18 by early November when the Congressional elections take place for the entire House and one-third of the Senate. A recent rally staged by these activists was dubbed, “Vote for Our Lives.”