One Week After Florida Shooting, Students Across The Nation Take Action

8
High school students rally against gun violence in front of the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Bonnie Jo Mount
>>Follow Matzav On Whatsapp!<<

One week after a gunman’s deadly rampage at a Florida high school, students across the country walked out of their schools Wednesday, amid a mounting call for action.

“The gun laws in this country are broken,” Connor Hartweg, a high school senior who took part in a demonstration in Illinois, told the Pioneer Press. “We really need to update today’s laws. Our government isn’t doing that. If we can’t lean on them to do it, then we’ve got to be that change.”

The demonstrations came in the wake of last week’s massacre in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day. Following the mass shooting, grieving students have garnered national attention as they organized and spoke out about stronger gun control laws.

In Florida, about 100 students from Stoneman Douglas High traveled by bus to the state Capitol in Tallahassee bearing homemade signs and messages for state lawmakers, arriving late Tuesday, according to the Miami Herald.

Some students arrived in time to watch lawmakers vote against a bill that would ban assault-style rifles, similar to the one used in last week’s shooting. Some students broke down in tears as the votes were tallied.

Wednesday, they arose and rallied on a hill near the Capitol and set out to meet with 75 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, the Herald reported.

In Pennsylvania, students left the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts for a noontime protest, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. During Wednesday’s demonstration, students locked arms and remained silent for 17 minutes, the newspaper reported.

In Illinois, several hundred students took part in a protest at Oak Park and River Forest High School on Wednesday, according to Karin Sullivan, a spokeswoman. The students marched as police blocked traffic, and administrators and security staff members accompanied them, Sullivan said in an update sent to families.

School officials were aware of the student demonstration in advance. In a message sent to faculty and staff, principal Nathaniel Rouse said the goal wasn’t to stop the protest, but rather to make sure students were kept safe.

“If students in your classes walk out, please allow them to exit peacefully,” Rouse wrote. “Administrators and security staff will be monitoring hallways, exits and the outside of the campus to ensure that students remain safe and peaceful.”

(c) 2018, The Washington Post · Moriah Balingit, Sarah Larimer 

{Matzav.com}


8 COMMENTS

    • These kids will fail school if they cut. More casualties from Cruz. Kiddos stay in school where it is totally safe. The streets are NOT safe. U March then u flunk out , sell drugs and go to jail..

      • They are getting a great education by rallying and understanding the reality of American politics and Government and how laws are written.
        Consider it part of Social Studies – American Govt and History. Maybe they should be given AP credit for it.

  1. So all of a sudden Nikolas Cruz, a sick boy of 19, became dangerous to the community. All of a sudden this sick boy who doesn’t work was able to purchase 10 guns, hmm… At least this is what fakestream media is telling us. Why didn’t they go the authorities weeks and months and years ago? Why now, just when the school had gun drills for the first time, and just now after the visit of Secret Service to the school just a few weeks earlier for the first time, and just now when the army happened to be there? What coincidences!!!

  2. With sympathy for the very real trauma experienced by the students and staff of the Parkland school, this isn’t “taking action.” The massacre was one in a long chain of attacks committed by people on or just coming off of psychiatric medication. The murderer was treated at a psychiatric facility, yet despite treatment, he did not change his misanthropic attitudes and still ended up behaving like a crazy evil ape.

    “Taking action” would be to look at revamping the mental health system. This system can start by treating people according to the bare fact that people have human souls and are made in Hashem’s Image, and are not just highly evolved pieces of meat.

Leave a Reply to I know a thing or two Cancel reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here