On Wednesday, February 14, 2018, a school shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, killing 17 people and leaving many injured. The shooter was former student Nikolas Cruz.

After this disastrous and traumatizing incident, the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and other high schools across the country thought that this event was tragic and they had had enough. They were tired of guns not being controlled. The students also wondered that with all these life-taking events happening, why haven’t government officials done anything to resolve this crisis.

“My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting.” stated President Donald Trump. Many people wondered why his apology was so vague, then discovered that the NRA (National Rifle Association) donated about $36.6 million to Donald Trump’s campaign when he was running for president. Along with many other government officials not doing anything to fix the laws on gun control, Florida lawmakers also failed to take up the Assault Rifle Bill and many people got mad, mostly students.

Students received plenty of “no answer” to their questions and decided to do something about gun control and get justice. On Wednesday, February 21, 2018 thousands of students rallied by walking out of schools all across Florida. The protests then spread across the country to include Minneapolis, Colorado, Illinois, and Washington D.C. Many students shouted out things like, “Vote Them Out”, “Enough is Enough,” “Parkland Strong” or “Justice for Douglas High”. They also were holding up posters that read “Keep our Schools Safe,” “Hey! Marco Rubio do something!,” “Protect kids not guns,” etc.

Many students walked 10 miles to City Hall, and others crossed arms and walked with posters declaring justice. Some students posted a sign outside of  the capitol building in Tallahassee, and it read, “Remember the men who value the NRA over children’s lives,” while other signs said, “Kill the NRA, not our kids”, and “These kids are braver than the GOP.”

Politicians then responded by saying things like ‘we feel with everything the students have been through, this is a tragedy and our heart goes out to them but we do not have to agree with everything they say because they are too young (inexperienced).’

Students then proceeded to respond by saying ‘Although we are just kids, we understand, we went through the harm of what a gun can do. We are old enough to understand why a senator cares about re-election. We are also old enough to understand why someone might want to discredit us for their own political purposes. But we will not be silenced.’

A national march was then organized for all high schools across the country on March 14 (a month after the shooting took place) and a walkout was planned at 10 a.m. in every time zone. Calls went out for students, faculty, parents, and others to walk out for 17 minutes–one minute for each person who was killed in the Florida School Shooting.  At BCCHS, ASB is organizing a march and protest inside the football stadium so that students can give their voices and protest gun violence across the United States. This protest rally will take place at 10 a.m. on March 14th and various student speakers have signed up to speak up.