“How many more?”

A question that has hovered in my head for weeks. How many more school shootings have to happen before something changes? In 2017 there were 65 school shootings. In the two and a half months we’ve been in 2018 there have been 18 school shootings. When will something change? Some type of action needs to be taken. Something serious needs to be done. School shootings can’t keep happening, we need to feel safe in school.

March 14th. Yes it is Albert Einstein’s birthday, but something way bigger is happening that day. School walkouts are happening all over the nation and Broomfield High School is getting involved. During 3rd period on Wednesday the 14th, students will be walking out of school to call for congress to pass legislation to make us safe inside the schools we attend five days a week. The walkout seems to be a very divided subject here at Broomfield. It seems like half of the students are pro-walkout where the other half of the students are no-walkout.

School shootings have become very prevalent in my lifetime. It seems like one happens every other day and it’s terrifying. It’s awful to think that some students are living in fear of attending school. Since my freshman year of high school there have been roughly 290 school shootings. It feels like nothing is being done to stop them. New security has been put in a number of schools around the country but school shootings still seem to happen. We can’t just sit around and hope that this madness comes to an end, action needs to be taken to stop this. Schools are meant to be a safe place for education, not a war zone. Some of the ideas that have been produced by congress seem to be quick fixes that won’t hold up. We need to show the world that we aren’t a problem that needs fixing, we need to show them that we’re humans just like them. We need to use our inner voices to show everyone that we aren’t okay with letting the problem solve itself. We’re putting our foot down to the violence.

We don’t expect a change the day of the walkout, we don’t expect this to be an overnight battle. It’s going to be a long battle as the wheels of justice tend to turn very slowly and we’re okay with that. We just want a world where we don’t have to fear going to school. We want to create a safe environment for each other.