Learn where your opinions lie
On Wednesday, March 14, one month after 17 students were killed in a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, many of their peers across the country participated in a National School Walkout.
Surely for some students it was a way to get a brief respite from schoolwork, but the optimist in us must believe that the 17 minutes they stopped to honor the Florida students had a deeper meaning for most of them.
This generation of high school students, for all the grief they get about entitlement, seems to want to be the impetus for change.
In the days after the Florida shooting, it was evident that something was different.
The tragedy seemed to immediately galvanize the Stoneman Douglas students. Instead of doing television interviews about their sadness and sense of loss, they talked about changing things.
They called out the adults who make the rules, by demanding they address violence in schools and demanding they stop talking and start acting.
Their voices were not as polished as those they lobbied at times, but what they had to say was compelling because it was real.
It was their moment to impact change and they took it.
Their fervor spread. Their peers across the country heard. And it went from being a moment to a movement.
In Greene County, Jefferson-Morgan and Carmichaels Area high schools held respective programs to honor the victims and also to let their student’s voices be heard.
In Connellsville, students cried as 17 balloons drifted skyward — memorials to the students killed in Florida. Students there acknowledged their fear that their lives could be similarly rocked by tragedy.
District Superintendent David McDonald offered them empowering words: “Today is about you guys. It’s about decisions you make,” he told the hundreds of students. “You guys drive it. It’s your voice, and it’s your choice.”
Students there and in the Charleroi Area School District owned their part of prevention, acknowledging they bear the responsibility for being better to one another on a daily basis.
In the Washington County district, Charleroi students said they’d use sticky notes to post compliments on others’ lockers for the next 17 days, but they recognized that those few days of kindness must extend indefinitely to affect long-term change.
It’s a heartening feeling to watch the generation that will eventually lead this country come together and look for a solution, and our sincere hope is that it will continue, with one caveat.
A couple of weeks ago, we took students to task who thought it was funny to issue joking threats about shooting. Today, we again speak to students, urging them educate themselves about the issues as they advocate for change.
If you want to help drive the nation to meaningful and sustained change, you must do more than jump on a bandwagon.
While local school districts were careful not to politicize the March 14 walk out – rightly so – if this next generation of lawmakers wants to continue to press for change and solutions, they must guard against being pawns, and ensure their enthusiasm is not exploited by those in power now.
Learn about the issues, all sides of them, and make informed decisions about where your opinions lie.