It's up to us students to help make schools safer from gun violence
In the late morning of May 25, 2018, my mother sent a text saying that someone was firing shots in the Noblesville West Middle School, only a five-minute drive away from me in Indiana. The school was under lockdown.
Only later that day would I learn what had happened.
A seventh grade boy, brandishing two handguns, had shot classmate Ella Whistler and science teacher Jason Seaman before the teacher disarmed and tackled him. Both Whistler and Seaman were then taken to the hospital and underwent surgery for serious injuries.
That Sunday, I attended church with my parents and younger sister. The atmosphere was permeated with grief. A friend of mine stood on stage in tears as she spoke to the congregation about the events that had occurred just days before. All around me I heard sniffles.
The faces of parishioners expressed despair. Everyone was sad not only about the injuries inflicted but also because the sense of security our community so long took for granted was now lost forever. I realized that gun violence can show up even a small town like mine.
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I felt a calling to take action. But I was only in the sixth grade. How could a kid like me do anything useful? It seemed impossible.
Feeling helpless, speaking out
In the years to come, we students at Hamilton Heights, just miles down the road from Noblesville West, kept doing ALICE drills: alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate. But now the once-make-believe exercise felt all too real. Every time the familiar announcement came crackling over the intercom, I felt my heart go in my throat.
Everything I’ve felt about that shooting – the overwhelming panic and shock – has gripped my parents, too. My dad teaches U.S. history at our middle school and my mom is a librarian there. School is supposed to be a haven for kids, a place to learn without putting our lives at risk. My dad has often talked to me about feeling frustrated, even helpless, that he can do only so much to protect his students.
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It was when I became a high school freshman that I finally found my voice on this issue still so close to my heart. I joined She’s the First, a nonprofit organization that teams up with grassroots organizations to make sure girls everywhere are educated, respected and heard.
As a youth ambassador, I recorded a video this spring that spoke out against how gun violence hurt young people everywhere. It called on leaders to put policies in place that mandate more background checks, just for starters. We posted the video on Instagram, strategically, just days after the shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers on May 24.
That was one day before the fourth anniversary of the school shooting in the next town over from mine. What had happened before had happened again, only worse, and I shuddered in sorrow.
Students can lead the charge for change
Clearly, the gun violence crisis our country has confronted for decades has grown to dimensions previously hard to imagine. Through only the first half of this year, the United States had already seen 27 school shootings.
Since January, there have been more than 400 mass shootings, which the Gun Violence Archive defines as four or more people shot or killed in a single incident.
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But every day, more Americans are speaking out and marching in rallies against gun violence. I, too, am still advocating for safer communities. Our school held a vigil to honor those we lost in Uvalde. We also enlisted people in our community to sign a petition calling on our U.S. Sens. Mike Braun and Todd Young to vote in favor of four gun safety laws. We gathered more than 30 signatures before mailing the petitions to Washington, D.C.
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I’m encouraged that we’re making progress, even downright hopeful that we’ll get where we need to go. Congress recently passed, and President Joe Biden signed into law, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The legislation enhances background checks, reduces gun trafficking and funds "red flag" laws as well as community violence intervention programs and school safety measures. It’s the first major federal gun safety law passed in nearly 26 years.
By no means will a single law be enough. I urge kids and parents alike to take steps to create the change we want. Write to your elected representatives. Speak out on social media. Join marches. Donate to activist organizations that lobby leaders to support policies that protect Americans from gun violence. Do everything in your power to keep Americans safe, especially kids in a classroom.
Nobody should wait until gunfire goes off in a school in the next town over from yours. I found my voice. Maybe, in the growing chorus of protest, you can find yours, too.
Hannah Beechler, a junior at Hamilton Heights High School in Indiana, is a youth ambassador for She’s The First.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Going back to school means facing fears of shootings, gun violence
