By Matt Swihart, Opinion Editor
Feb. 14, 2018, brought one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history to a high school in Parkland, Florida, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Fourteen students and three faculty members lost their lives in this attack.
Now, nationwide, many students are calling for action.
On March 14, more than 1,500 Kenosha Unified School District students, including 300 from Indian Trail High School & Academy, joined in a walkout, organized nationally by the Women’s March Youth and locally by two Indian Trail General Studies seniors, Molinna Bui and Alicia Lorta.
Students in schools nationwide banded together to make a statement. The walkouts were done to not only call for gun law reforms, but also to remember the victims of the Parkland tragedy.
“We are not saying to get rid of guns or the Second Amendment,” said Bui. “The problem that we have is that guns are getting into the hands of people who should not have guns, like people who are mentally ill and should not have any type of violent weapon nearby.”
Protests began at 10 a.m. on the East Coast and slowly spread across the country as more high schools reached that same hour in each different time zone. In Kenosha, similar walkouts happened at Bradford High School, Tremper High School, and other area schools. Smaller walkouts occurred at Mahone, Lincoln, Lance, and Bullen middle schools.
At IT, students walked out and stayed outside for 17 minutes — one minute for each of the 17 lives taken in the Parkland shooting — before returning to class. During the protest, Lorta and Bui spoke through a bullhorn, naming each of the Parkland victims, sharing their stories and asking students to call their state representatives.
Students may have walked out for varying reasons, but were mostly united as they listened to the impassioned speeches from Bui and Lorta.
“If students don’t want to march, they can call their congressmen,” said Lorta, who handed out cards with local lawmakers’ phone numbers.
Indian Trail students were divided over participating in the walkout. While the estimated 300 students did walk out of class, a majority stayed inside. IT students have many different opinions on the walk out, what needs to be done to stem gun violence, and how students could truly make a difference.
“I think we can. It’s just going to take time,” said Indian Trail General Studies senior Noah Sorenson, who participated in the walkout. “It might require our students to grow up into adults and take their opinions with them.”
Other students who didn’t walk out had their own ideas about what could be done.
“I feel that as a movement, it’s in the right place, but it’s not the most effective way to go about it,” said Aidan Kiely, an Indian Trail Medical Sciences Academy senior. “I feel that a better way to organize would’ve been to have everyone, like during an advisory on Friday, write a letter to a representative and then mail it out.”
After the walkout, students wait to see how or if representatives will respond to the protests. Gun laws in America have been under serious scrutiny in the wake of the shooting. Parkland shooting survivors have been speaking out and calling for change to current gun laws, more specifically those laws that could have prevented the incident. These students have achieved results already with their protests and outcry, results such as stores like Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods raising the minimum age to purchase any gun to 21 years old.
Bui and Lorta plan to continue spreading their message.
“This walkout is just that first step – now walkup. Talk to that kid that gets picked on for being ‘weird,’ say that compliment you’re keeping in your head, smile and wave to those you see in the hallway. Ask about someone’s day or interests, help someone out with their homework, simply be kind,” Bui said.
