North Broward Prep School, February 15
Broadly: Currently, do you feel safe going to school?"In the weeks following what happened at my school, I constantly thought, if something were to happen at my school, what would my response be?"
Matthew Weinstein: With the [current] gun laws, I do not feel safe going to school. I don’t really think any student does, especially around here. Before what happened on Valentine’s Day at Marjory Stoneman High School, school shootings were not on the forefront of my mind. Even though I didn’t think about the threat of a school shooting every day, I definitely was worried about it. Now, I make conscious decisions while at school to protect myself, such as, I sit in different places, and I am more conscious of the people around me. In the weeks following what happened at my school, I constantly thought, if something were to happen at my school, what would my response be?
I want the issue of gun violence to be at the forefront of the nation’s mind. We cannot forget about these atrocities in favor of what’s on TV tonight or what our favorite celebrity is wearing. If people remain active, I believe we can pressure lawmakers into getting real common sense gun laws. I also want to get more kids registered and voting. In the 2014 midterm elections, only 13 percent of the total vote was made up of people ages 18 through 29. If we can increase that number significantly, I know that we can get the right people into office. We need the kind of people who will listen to the younger voices of the nation and get things done.
Jackson Memorial Middle School, February 20
Maria Mitri: One thing I noted in my speech at the rally is that a lot of people who support the second amendment say, "It is my constitutional right to own a gun.” But this gun reform and gun control movement is not synonymous with a gun ban. We want limits and restrictions, not complete abolition.You mentioned that students at your school have been debating the need for metal detectors. Would you feel safer with metal detectors?
Yeah, I mean, this seventh grader who is as old as my brother was able to get this long rifle A) out of the house B) onto the bus C) off of the bus D) into the school where there's lots of teachers and people, and nobody noticed it. And this kid had 80 rounds of ammunition with him, he wanted to kill 80 people and nobody noticed a thing. If we had metal detectors, they would have gone off. I know it's scary to think about that. People say, "This is a school; it shouldn't be like this." You're correct: This is a school, and it shouldn’t be like this, but this is the world we live in and therefore we must adapt.
Southeastern Louisiana University, February 23
Anthony Washington: I really think after that happened—especially with two people who are so affiliated with the university—I feel like maybe the school itself should take better precautions… My university is very strict with a lot of things. There is a no tobacco policy, there is a lot of stuff on our campus that we can’t have.
Right, right .Do you know how these students got a gun?
Honestly no idea. For the most part, people don’t partake in that activity on campus but there have been a couple of residents who have posted on Snapchat of themselves with firearms and stuff like that, and they immediately got caught.Not only did you report the shooting, but you also had to speak to your residents about the situation afterwards. Since the shooting, what have you learned?
One thing that I figured out was that with a lot of things that happen on campus where the university will email you, the facts get misconstrued very, very quickly. …So it’s important to make sure that everyone knows the facts and they know what [they] can do to stay safe. And if you see something happen, don’t be afraid to call somebody. … You shouldn’t wait around until something extreme happens.
Savannah State University, February 24
Oakland High School, February 26
Aleta Nelson: I think when things like this are happening, everyone thinks, Oh, it’s not going to happen to me. But I don’t think I actually felt that way. I had started noticing that [gun violence] was getting closer and closer to my area. While I don’t think we’ve had an actual shooting in my area, there has been a lot more violence in my community, especially around the time when the shooting happened at school. Because of all the violence, I have to always think, Gun violence isn’t just affecting people in other places; it’s here, too.
Have you gone back to school?"Everyone needs to think about the issue and think, are my guns more important than my kids?"
I went back to school the day after the shooting happened. I thought we would get school off, but because no one was hurt we went back to school. The next day there was more security and there were counselors available, but it did feel weird to go back to school. Even though no one got shot, it was a big thing… Going back the next day was weird.What do you believe should happen in order to make you feel safe at school?
That’s a really hard question to answer. I do think we need more gun control and I know there’s all that stuff about the second amendment. While [the second amendment] said we have the right to guns, nowhere did it say we can’t have gun control. For me, I’m not sure how [the student] got the gun. With gun control, this issue is not just about schools and threats to schools. When people can get easy access to guns, our community as a whole is at threat, and everyone should be worried about gun control. Everyone needs to think about the issue and think, are my guns more important than my kids?
Norfolk State, February 27
Mississippi Valley State University, February 27
Dalton High School, February 28
The day of the shooting, you tweeted, “This lockdown isn’t fake.” What prompted you to tweet that?"When I was just sitting there, my friends got messages that people were being held hostage and people were running. I thought, I might lose my life at this moment."
The day [of the shooting] people [on Twitter] were automatically saying, “Oh, it’s just a fake thing;” and, “It’s something [organized] by the government.” I thought, That’s just crazy. I just lived it and I don’t think it’s fake at all. … I think [conspiracy theorists on social media] should stop lying, and I think they need to understand that next time, it could be your school. Or someone you love could have to deal with a shooting. It’s not a joke.Some people argue that instead of gun reform, schools should arm teachers. Do you agree with that belief?
We recently had a meeting at our school about that very issue, and people at the meeting said that we needed to arm teachers. I don’t think that’s right. If a teacher could do this at my school, I wonder what another teacher could do. We don’t know about their mental state, whether they are depressed or not. I think the only way we could allow [arming teachers] is to have a psychological background test on all teachers given guns, but I would prefer that teachers not have guns at all.
Central Michigan University, March 2
Brian Fettig: School shootings are an issue because it happens here [in the US] more than it does than in any other country. I think that politicians need to sit down and work something out. To me, it’s the Republican side of the aisle that isn’t taking this issue as seriously and I believe that they’re misconstruing the second amendment. To the NRA, I would say they started out as a good organization in the beginning, when they cared about conservation and hunters. But now, I don’t understand why the NRA opposes expanding background checks. Why do they need a 30 round [gun] magazine? Why does somebody need a bump stock? Those are things most people would agree the average citizen doesn’t need.Did what happened at your school affect your opinion on the gun control debate?
What happened here doesn’t really fit with the narrative of either side. For instance, if the shooter’s father was a police officer, and he was able to take his gun, it would make sense to argue for more gun control, because if a kid can swipe a police officer’s gun, that police officer is trained. What happens if a regular person has a gun and their kid is in the house? I think there are a lot of things that could have happened differently at CMU but we can’t chalk it up to be a political debate—it was a very unfortunate event.
Texas State University, March 4
Broadly: Do you think the shooting at your school shines any light on the gun control debate currently happening in this country?"What if something escalates in class? What if a conversation gets a little bit heated and someone has a gun on them, then what?"
Elijah Miller: I definitely do think it shines a light on the gun control debate, just because that person shouldn't have had a gun in the first place. … I know a lot of college students feel uneasy in today's climate. I was having a conversation with some friends recently, and we were saying how in all of our classes, we kind of always think, What's the emergency route gonna be if something happens? I really don't think that's a burden that college students should have to worry about. Especially with the conceal and carry laws recently enacted in Texas [which allow for concealed weapons on campus], I know professors and students alike are kind of nervous about, what if something escalates in class? What if a conversation gets a little bit heated and someone has a gun on them, then what?Is there anything about school shootings that people need to know from students?
I think what a lot of students want from our legislators is just for them to care. I think a lot of times [students] aren't taken seriously because of our age. But our lives matter, too. Just because the NRA is in the pockets of a lot of our legislators, the focus of these issues have been taken off of us, and money is being prioritized. We need to make sure that people are being prioritized over pocket change and politics. We need to make sure that we're keeping our youth protected… There's a lot of greediness going on, from the top down. So, we need to make sure that there's no room for greed within Washington.
Kingston High School, March 5
Huffman High School, March 7
Fantasia Noack: I think that adults and the authorities in the schools need to have a closer relationship with students… I think that a lot of things that happen in schools are because the adults don’t really listen to the students. The situation with the 17 kids [who were killed in Parkland], from my understanding, is that the kids reported that the boy was threatening to shoot the school, and it was ignored. Adults in schools always say, “Come talk to us if there’s a problem.” But if someone comes to talk to them and they’re not listened to, how does that help? I think if students come to administrators with issues, they need to be taken seriously. You might think he’s playing, but there are lives that are lost because of this.The adults should pay attention to students and gain their trust so when things like this are about to happen, they could hopefully prevent it. …You never know the whole story and you don’t know what’s going on inside the person’s head who does these things, or why they felt it was necessary to do these things, or what’s hurting them on the inside. I feel like if they had someone to talk to, or someone that understood them maybe, or paid some attention to them, they wouldn’t react in certain situations.
Frederick Douglass High School, March 9
George Washington Middle School, March 13
Miranda Tonsetic: Definitely not. I’m part of a group working to stop guns in school and we brought up what happened at our school to [Virginia] Congressman Beyers. If trained professionals, who are in schools to protect the children, accidentally fire guns, then what would happen if we gave untrained teachers guns?Do you think the students who walked out with you felt a sense of urgency because of the gun shooting accident the day before?
I think the timing of the accident was very important for the walkout. During the walkout, kids were talking about the day before and asking, “How could this happen at our school?” I’ve heard the Parkland kids say, “You never think this is going to happen to you” and that’s exactly what I thought. Now I stand corrected.
Seaside High School, March 13
Ariana Tiedemann: The day after the situation happened, we had a school walkout planned because it was the one-month anniversary of the Parkland shooting. I would say over 500 students walked out—it was probably our whole school. During the walkout, we addressed gun laws and all the shootings that have happened. At the very end, we addressed the Alexander situation. While we spoke about how guns shouldn’t be at school, we also brought up that Mr. Alexander had changed our lives and that he is a good man… He has student support and even the students who were in the classroom spoke, and they said they forgive him.We hear about all these shootings, and people chalk it up as pro-gun or anti-gun. Do you think that what happened at your school fits either side of the gun control debate?
I think it does in a way, because even though it was an accident it really shows that we shouldn’t be arming teachers. I think this whole situation plays into that because Mr. Alexander was trained and he knows how to handle a gun but this still happened. I think we should not be arming teachers because Mr. Alexander is trained and knows what he can do. But imagine giving a gun to someone who had no idea and has never handled a gun before. The whole situation could have been worse.
Great Mills High School, March 20
After Rollins shot his two schoolmates, he continued to roam the school hallways until he was confronted by school resource officer Blaine Gaskill. During their altercation, Rollins fatally shot himself in the head. Two days later, Jaelynn Wiley died after being taken off life support by her family.“Going through a school shooting is extremely traumatic and jarring,” Mollie Davis told Broadly. “But I’m speaking out because it’s important and lives are at stake. During the school walkout, my friend said to me, ‘Parkland is a school just like ours. No school is immune to this kind of thing, and we need to stick up for ourselves.’”Broadly: Can you tell me about your experience at your school on March 20th?"The next generation of people voting were all born after Columbine shooting. We’ve known about school shootings since we were five years old."
Mollie Davis: We heard people screaming. Fights happen at our school, so we thought it was a fight. But the screaming kept going, and it lasted longer than it would if it was just a fight, so people from my class walked out of the classroom to look down the staircase to the bottom floor. They saw people fleeing from the school, so it was obvious that something else was happening.We saw the news articles while we were still on lockdown in the school. In my class, we were all very much in shock and didn’t really think it had really happened. It didn’t really hit me until we were being evacuated from the school, and I saw that the school was covered in police officers and SWAT teams. Then, I thought, Wow, this really did happen here.On April 3, you went back to school for the first time since the shooting. Did you feel safe going back to school?
There is this underlying fear of the very small chance that what if this happens a second time. But we have more police officers this time. I guess because of that, I feel safer than I previously did. We previously had school resource officers in school and now they’ve added more. As a white person, it’s not a concern for me to have increased police presence in school, but my school has a large Black population and I’m concerned for them.Now what do you think needs to happen to make students feel safe?
I think the most important thing people can do is vote. Our votes count, and if people can vote and they choose not to, that is a huge waste and very sad. Politicians have had a chance to act on [gun control] for so long. Watching certain ones not act is sad, and it is wrong. The next generation of people voting were all born after Columbine shooting. We’ve known about school shootings since we were five years old. I believe that we were raised to fear shootings, and we don’t want to raise our kids like this.