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| Chimacum Middle School Students Gathering |
"Today we are here to honor life’s lost in the unspeakable tragedies happening all over the country. The latest in Parkland Florida.
Our voices as students, teachers, and members of the community need to be heard. Our voices need to create change. Our voices need to inspire others to do the same.
I'm asking you to put aside your political views for 17 minutes. I'm asking you actually recognize what is happening around the U.S. I’m asking you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
This is our lives! Their lives were taken away from them, so yes I am asking you to do something. I am begging every single one of you. We cannot choose to ignore or tune out these events because they do not affect us. Because when we let it go untested it gets worse.
This is how a Wednesday went from a normal day to a movement like this
I walked out of the gym at 4:30 I checked my phone looking for a text message from my mom instead I found a shooting. I remember looking at the screen looking at the article, looking at the death count, looking around at my fellow teammates, my fellow classmates. Girls I had grown up with for ten years. I then imagined seventeen of them gone. How could this keep happening? Why is it that seventeen people need to die for us to start taking something like this seriously?
Us as students should feel safe going to school every day. But we don’t. And how could we? How can any of us after this?
It has been a month! The time to change is now. Something needs to come of this!
17 minutes of silence isn’t enough to remember the souls taken from us due to senseless acts of shooting. It will take us coming together to stand for what is right. I’ll let each one of you decide for yourself what you truly think ‘right’ is. But I can tell you this 17 people had their life’s cut off all too soon in Parkland Florida Feb 14th, 2018.
It’s one thing to remember the victims and speak out. It’s another thing to take action.
If you see something say something!
Whether it’s from social media, school, text message, home, anywhere if you witness or hear something that could be a red flag report it!
Don’t be the person to stand by and let something like this happen.
I don’t care if that person is your friend, your relative, a total stranger. Do something tell someone. You can speak to a trusted adult. For example a teacher, principal, counselor, parent or law enforcement. Not only could you be helping to prevent a death, but you could also help change someone's life and aid them in getting help. We cannot stand by and watch something like this unfold. Because to me keeping some secret or joke isn’t worth a single life, and absolutely not 17.
Nothing is.
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| Students listen as their classmate speaks. |
Florida is the farthest state away from Washington, we cannot let those 1000s of miles detract from the seriousness of this.
When we stand together for what is right we become more powerful. We can’t let things like this separate us. When we allow them too we become weaker.
The victims who died were children, friends, sons, and daughters. Just like us
Peter Wang died holding open a classroom door for other so they could escape before him. Teachers threw themselves in front of children to prevent their own students from being shot. They were willing to save somebody else's lives even if it meant their own. We owe it to them to change.
Their kindness and bravery in their last minutes on Earth should move us to show the same. Thank you for listening and showing your support today. If you can take something away from this besides learning to take action please take with you thankfulness for what we have. Because for some in Parkland it is what they lost."
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After the shooting, I was really just left in shock and disbelief. The shock translated into action. We spent hours, planning, talking to students, sharing with teachers, and trying to morally understand why something like this happened. Why we didn't feel safe going to school. Why we even had to worry about this. It all accumulated into the walkout. I reached out to the paper and they came out to the school on the day of the walkout.
We wanted a way to really help students visualize what the after effects massacre like this could be. The idea presented itself at an ASB meeting when our advisor suggested we do some form of representing the victims killed.
After that, we then worked with a group of representatives who helped organize and participate the show of solidarity. Each one of us was assigned a number and when the number was read out loud we came out from the crowd to sit on the bleachers. Underneath our sweatshirts we wore an X, to represent each shot that ended 17 students and teachers lives in Parkland Florida.
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| Students with X's on their shirts representing the 17 killed in Florida. |
As a student, I feel a responsibility to spread my voice and encourage others to do the same. We all have a voice, it is up to you to make sure it is heard.
by Ava
PS: Our local newspaper covered the story.
