To the still ladies and gentlemen of Congress,
Going to school the Thursday after the Parkland shooting was terrifying. I had never really been deeply affected by a school shooting – although I should’ve been as a student attending school everyday – but I guess because this one hit close to home, I gained interest in learning more about the tragedy.
After reading a dozen stories of heroism and fearlessness and watching a dozen interviews with motionless legislators and desperate victims, it became all too real to me as I watched a video of the moment police entered a science classroom with guns drawn and demanded that phones be turned off and hands be risen. About fifteen arms extended and began trembling with their voices as you heard the students crying and whimpering for help.
I pictured me and my friends cornered at the back of a science lab at our school – which looks exactly the same – and started crying. I could literally feel their fear.
I had also learned something else.
Alyssa Alhadeff was a part of her local traveling soccer league and a part of her community. Nicholas Dworet was my age and had a swimming scholarship to the University of Indianapolis. Joaquin Oliver was an avid sports fan and had just become a citizen. Jaime Guttenburg posed for a picture against a wall in Wynwood, one of my favorite places. Luke Hoyer loved chicken McNuggets and Lebron James. Gina Montalto was an aspiring fashion designer and member of the school’s renowned winter guard team. Cara Loughran loved the beach and dancing at the Drake School of Irish Dance. Alex Schachter was excellent playing the trombone and baritone. Carmen Schentrup was a National Merit Scholar semifinalist.
All of them with dreams and aspirations. All of them unsure of their future. All of them just like me. Just like my friends.
It occurred to me that I’ve seen as many warning signs with people as the last person did with Nikolas Cruz. I’ve seen pictures of threats, heard stories of kids drawing sketches of people bleeding and even had a friend tell me she overheard someone say “a pep rally is the perfect place for a school shooting.” The only difference is that Cruz was reported several times to the FBI, DCF and multiple other federal institutions, while we have no idea who these people are or if they are even serious. People demean and joke about shooting up their school all the time, just as they demean and joke about suicide, depression and other serious things.
If we can’t tell the difference between a serious threat and a joke, the likeliness of us reporting it decreases.
It is not okay that I don’t feel safe at school. It is one of the places I should feel the safest.
It is even more upsetting that you are doing nothing about it. All I hear are crickets in Congress. There must be a top secret CIA case on Area 51 or the trafficking of “Limitless” power pills into the country that’s drawing most of your attention.
Or is the amount of money you’re getting from the NRA paying for first-class vacations and expensive 5-star dinners that suck up all the time you can put towards policy reformation?
Luckily, I, a 17-year-old high school senior that plans on studying journalism and film, have a better plan for policy changes to improve public safety than any of you “public officials” with “30 years of political experience.”
What You Can Do (and What You Aren’t Doing):
Staying Safer while Studying
My grandmother shared a story with me about an elementary school teacher and the practice that she initiated a few years ago to help kids in need. Every Monday, she would ask her students to write the names of three peers that they wanted to sit next to at lunch that week on a piece of paper. It wasn’t to see who was the most popular, but rather, to identify which kids were being neglected or ignored so she could focus on finding out why and figuring out how to help.
Although gun proliferation is the biggest culprit, mental illness is still a pretty large factor. It’s important to identify the problem at its root and work with children when they’re younger as a way to prevent bullying and loneliness from contributing to mental illness.
There has to be a better system that can help teachers and administrators to further understand these children while making them feel accepted.
Militarizing schools is not helpful either. It will alienate learning, force kids to want to stay home — watch how virtual and home schooling booms — waste federal budget funds and make the problem worse.
And, unless you build a wall around the school campus, metal detectors are a waste of money. Instead, we should invest in electronic admission to schools with student IDs or ID numbers like how we do with lunch (which simultaneously handles attendance) and hurricane proof windows everywhere, including doors, which prevented the gunman at Douglas from shooting hundreds of more students from the teachers lounge.
Gun CONTROL
Control is emphasized because it’s usually overlooked by most republicans/NRA members/gun rights activists.
No one is talking about taking guns away. Some might but with every movement, you get extremists. You have yours, too. Clearly.
I actually support the second amendment because my mom has always told me that we need to have guns, ya know, in case of an authoritarian government takeover (*cough cough*).
But purchasing one should be one of the hardest things to do. Buying a gun should be like applying to college.
It should require a license, just like driving, and an extensive amount of paperwork to get one.
Instead of transcripts, however, the packet should include a thorough background/record check, a minimum “GPA” or grade on their required gun safety class, a minimum score on an SAT-like exam where they’re tested on their basic knowledge and understanding of gun safety.
They must also write a 500-600 word essay on a topic of their choice related to gun violence, safety or personal interest: What did you learn in class? What is your experience with guns? Why do you want this specific gun? In your opinion, what is the worst historical event caused by gun violence?
And for fun: 2 recommendation letters and at least an hour of community service.
It’s not like that, though. It’s too easy for anyone to purchase one. In the state of Florida, the gun laws are one of the weakest. Once you’re 18-years-old, after a “background check” you can purchase any gun with no license, permit or registration and after a three-day waiting period – with the exception of assault rifles (the gun Cruz used), which can go home with you the same day.
They don’t need a permit or license to conceal or carry a rifle or shotgun, like you do with a handgun. They can buy as much ammunition as they want. They can also buy as many guns as they like. Anyone can sell you a gun because you don’t need a license for that either. Its also illegal for doctors to discuss gun safety with their patients and bills are discussed every year that allow teachers to bring their guns to school (all sponsored by the NRA).
The Giffords Law Center, a group that advocates for gun safety and control, literally gave Florida an “F” grade for our poor gun laws in 2016. If I can’t bring an F home, my state certainly shouldn’t.
And that’s just Florida. There were several other states that matched our letter grade across the nation. I’m not even mentioning how easy it is to buy guns or gun pieces online and at gun shows all over our country.
It’s an epidemic and it needs to be controlled.
Still, you so-called “public leaders” are too terrified to lose millions to utter the word “gun” in your speeches and would rather address mental health.
But according to Mental Health America, besides the 5% decrease of uninsured adults with mental illnesses, 56% still have no access to treatment.
On top of that, youth mental care is worsening with rates of severe depression increasing to nearly 10% of our under 18 population in the last five years, and 1.7 million kids with major depressive episodes didn’t receive treatment.
So, in reality, you’re not really doing anything about mental healthcare either.
States that expanded Medicaid in mental health saw a significant improvement in youth coverage.
Why isn’t every state expanding then?
I’m genuinely confused. I really can’t understand what it would take to push you into policy reformation. You didn’t do anything after Columbine. You haven’t done anything since Sandy Hook.
If you don’t do anything now, we will. Students like Emma Gonzalez, Cameron Kasky and David Hogg, Parkland shooting survivors who haven’t stopped demanding action since Valentine’s Day. Students like me and my friends. Students like millions of other terrified teens that are tired of hearing “thoughts and prayers” and seeing no change in policy.
We are the future and we’re taking it into our own hands: The seniors this year can vote in November.
Beautifully said