Yup, we’ve done it again.
A month after the shooting in Parkland, students all over the country gathered together for a second time in honor of the victims.
Some schools followed through with the traditional walk-out while administration at others opted for more organization and less disruption.
At Miami Palmetto High, we were released hall by hall through the cafeteria and onto the field. Someone had spray painted an outline of where to stand onto the grass. Pouring out of double doors, teachers began pulling and placing us in a single file line, some of us locking arms. After the organizer said a brief speech, the Panthers stood incredibly silent in solitude — in the form of a P and a heart and an MSD.
A minute for every victim. A brief 17. Nothing compared to how long the month felt to the victims and students at Stoneman Douglas and to the students everywhere else.
When people started talking, we shot them eyes and a shhhh heard for a sec over the field like wind — and then nada.
Other schools, like Gulliver Prep did the same thing (a drone picture over their football field from G to MSD) while schools like Coral Reef and Killian High chose to chant with signs.
I looked around at the lacrosse team and the creative writing kids and Model UN and my friends, and again it sunk in how much these kids who were murdered are just like us. Palmetto is the MSD of Miami-Dade — a big school in a prosperous part of town, full of outspoken kids who know and have the platforms and resources to share their voices.
But we are still defenseless.
I peeked down at my feet and realized that I was walking out as much for Jaime Guttenberg and Joaquin Oliver, for Helena Ramsay and Peter Wang as I was for myself and my friends. They can’t walk anymore. We walk for them.
And we should walk all the way to Washington D.C.
Because only a full ban on assault weapons will make us feel safe again.
