How My World Changed Forever...Again

Remember Their Names

A/N don't read if you're offended by the human right to feel safe in school.

Alyssa Alhedeff, 14
Scott Biegel, 35
Martin Duque, 14
Nicholas Dworet, 17
Aaron Feis, 37
Jamie Guttenberg , 14
Chris Hixon, 49
Luke Hoyer, 15
Cara Loughran, 14
Gina Montalto, 14
Joaquin Oliver, 17
Alaina Petty, 14
Meadow Pollack, 18
Helena Ramsay, 17
Carmen Schentrup, 16
Peter Wang, 15

14 students
3 teachers
17 lives lost

Those are 17 lives lost that didn't have to be. On February 14th, 2018, students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida had their lives turned upside down by a mass shooting in their school.

And now, nobody talks about it.  Did you even know that in 2019, the officer on duty at MSD at the time of the shooting was arrested on 7 counts of child neglect, 3 counts of culpable negligence, and 1 count of perjury?  He stopped doing his job when he could have saved some of the 17, and no one knows about it!  If we can't even trust our school resource officers
-cops- to defend us, then who can we trust?

His arrest only came after a 15 month investigation.  He refused to investigate where the gun shots were coming from and retreated when shots were still going off.  Fred Guttenberg, father of Jamie, said, "I have no comment except to say rot in hell."  Imagine finding out that your daughter's life could've been saved.

I didn't publish anything about this day last year. It was really hard for me to even think about. Again, I am not a student from Parkland or any surrounding area. In fact, I am not even from Florida. I am just a normal, public high school attendee.

But sometimes, that's enough. Every textbook dropped, every announcement that comes on, every slammed door, ever single time I turn a corner, there is just such a fear.

On February 14th, 2018, 14 kids had their lives taken away from them while hundreds more had their lives torn apart. February 14th is supposed to be a day full of love but instead all those Parkland students experienced was hate.

Those months following the devastation were perhaps the most invigorating of my life so far. Kids. Kids were showing adults that we knew what we're talking about. I really thought that that shooter had messed with the wrong district, the wrong group of kids, and ultimately, the wrong generation. I thought we could change something.

Needless to say, with a republican controlled congress and a president who I'm pretty sure has the IQ of a banana, nothing changed. Of course, he offered his thoughts and prayers on Twitter, but somehow, that wasn't enough.

We need policy and change.

In November, I will be two months shy of 18. Sadly, I will not get to vote for whichever democratic nominee wins the ticket. That means I have to rest my future in the hands of adults, which didn't turn out so good in 2016. I will always remember that election as the time that it seemed as though my country had failed to protect me.

I urge you to vote, and I urge you to vote blue. I'm tired of turning on my phone to see another headline of another school shooting.

I know change won't come over night, and I know it may not even come with the next administration. Gun violence in schools is a complicated mess of mental health and gun accessibility. We just need someone to acknowledge that a problem exists because we don't have that right now. Kids are looking to their politicians, the ones who are supposed to vouch for us, and they never get an answer.

Generation Lockdown is so real it's horrifying. We're not Gen Z at all. Kids born between 1995 and 2015 never ever saw a year of school before 1999, the year our country changed forever; the year a path was paved for school shooters for the next 20 years and counting. Reread that sentence. How unnerving.

On this day, I not only grieve those lost in Parkland but also those affected by Columbine and Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech and everywhere in between.

As I post this, it is 10:17 AM on February 14th, 2020.  As I post this, the Parkland community and surrounding communities are observing a moment of silence.

That moment of silence should not have to exist.  Kids are hanging on and pleading for some change because we don't know how much longer we can do this.  And we can't do it alone.

I am so sick of school shootings not even getting a turned head by the Republican Party.  Thoughts and prayers.  Thoughts and prayers, they say.  Vote them all out.  Every last one of them.  At every single level of government.

I vow to always vote blue in my life because I will always remember what it feels like to not feel safe in school.

I know there are also kids reading this who also will not be able to vote this year.  To you I say, I understand.  I get it.  Stand up.  Denver that you're never too young to change the world.  When it feels like no one is on your side, show those adults that we might be kids, but we know what we're talking about.  Scream and shout and march in the streets until they can ignore you anymore.  Cause a scene.

On this day, I urge you to hug your family a little tighter.  Say "I love you" one more time.

NRA, our blood is on your hands.