Take a Stand

In the wake of the 18th mass shooting this year in America, which came less than two months after 2018 began, the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, chose to stand up for every child who's ever endured a school shooting just one day after they watched and listened to their friends and teachers being shot. And it wasn't politicians or people in power who stood behind them, it was students just like them who realize, every time a school shooting hits the news, that there won't be change until we make it.

The day after the shooting, a friend and I were talking about what we would do if we were in a school shooting. What escape routes we had in a classroom with just one door to exit from that locks from the outside. We considered jumping out a window, but where would we go from there? The woods? The highway? Then it occurred to us that it's not something we should ever have to worry about, yet we do. Every year another school shooting puts us on our toes, wondering how we could escape each classroom and where we could hide if it was during a transition.

This isn't just me, my friends, or teens who have endured a school shooting in their community. It's students across the country saying "Enough is Enough". Walkouts have taken place and will be taking place to make a point to the people in charge. And a message to the people against we who want to voice our opinions saying, "It's an interruption to your studies" all I have to say is: so is an AR-15. Go ahead and say guns don't kill people, that people do. Saying that isn't wrong, but there are so many ways that it could be more difficult to do so. And if it takes me and a couple thousand other students walking out on their studies to change that, I say it's worth it. 

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