#Neveragain by Yasmine McRoyal

I awoke from my deep slumber on February 14^th to reach for my phone and check my social media as I do in my morning routine. As I was scrolling and went to check the news the headlines that I saw made me turn blue, “Breaking News School Shooting in Parkland, Florida at local High School” “17 killed as gunman opens fire at Parkland High School” “Death Toll Is at 17 and Could Rise in Florida School Shooting” “Former Student Opens Fire on Classmates” “Gunman has been arrested and is in police custody”. What started out as a normal day for the teachers and students at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, transformed in a scene of grisly mass murders and injuries perpetrated by a 19-year-old high school student Nikolas Cruz. This left our country reeling from yet another massacre in the nation’s school but not only our nation was left mourning but all of the surviving students. This left them in a state of rage that, yet our country let this happen again.

The rage, that is what many of us felt when we first heard of this shooting and what we continue to feel when these school shootings are happening every other month, week, and day. On the day when I woke up and checked my phone I was so upset about this school shooting I even started to cry, I wasn’t really sure why this one hit so close to home. I thought it was because my little brothers were going to be freshmen’s in high school that fall, I can’t even begin to imagine what the survivors felt. The initial impact this shooting had on me was that it made me scared, I was getting scared to go to school and I would worry that this would happen to me or any of my family that are in high school or middle school. That thought alone terrified me. I was petrified for the safety of my little brothers that I even told them to remember to be nice to anyone that you come in contact with in school because you never know how much of a difference you can make in a person’s life. I even keep that thought to myself.

It started with the hashtag #NeverAgain. After the mass shooting a few of the seniors at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School took it upon themselves to start protesting for reform on the gun laws starting the foundation called “Never Again MSD”. With the everlasting ripple effect of the shooting it wasn’t very hard for them to get people on board with them. It started with the planning of the event called March for Our Lives. March for Our Lives was a student-led demonstration in support of tighter gun control that took place on March 24, 2018, in Washington, D.C. This was led and started by members of Never Again MSD. This even was broadcasted all around the world and was talked about for weeks after it was over. The seniors from MSD started a revolution that wouldn’t just get left in the dust and forgotten about in a couple months. This event was for a really a good cause but still ended up getting a bad reputation. People even started to go as low as making fun of their looks and saying that they are just teenagers that don’t even understand what is going on. But if you don’t try how do you know?

After the summer of this year was over and the talk of going back to school was back in the picture the first thing that was talked about was Clear Backpacks. Robert Runcie, the superintendent of Broward County Public Schools in Florida, announced the new policy six weeks after the event. Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were given clear back packs that they are required to wear on campus in order to prevent anyone from bringing weapons onto campus. Now of course there was an uproar of controversy with these back packs because the shooter at the time wasn’t even a student at the school anymore and he still managed to cause so much damage. Also, because it is such an invasion of privacy. I understand that they have good intentions, but we are going to need more than clear backpacks to prevent these mass shootings from happening. Another type of back pack that was released and talked about was the Bullet Proof Backpack. What I thought was interesting, is that instead of looking into the laws and trying to make them better they are coming out with all these different types of backpacks except being willing to reform gun laws. I was talking to my little brothers about school one time and they told me that one of their friends carries a bulletproof backpack to school. The kid told my little brothers that his backpack cost $300 and is an extra 3.5 pounds because of the plating/lining in the backpack. This enough confirmed that people are scared if they are willing to pay that much for a backpack.

Although it may not feel like any of the gun laws have been reformed, they have. More than 50 new gun reform laws have been passed since the outcry from our country after the Parkland shooting, here are just a couple I wanted to include. In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a $400 million of legislative reforms for school security, mental health and gun control. The legislation bans the use of bump stocks — devices that allow the rapid firing of certain firearms — increases the minimum rifle purchasing age from 18 and 21, and institutes a three-day waiting period on all firearm purchase. In Rhode Island, Gov. Gina Raimondo signed an executive order allowing law enforcement agencies to consider “all red flags, including recent threats of violence made in person, in videos and on social media and take all available legal steps to remove firearms from any person who poses a threat to themselves or others”. On March 14, the House passed school safety legislation, while not including any gun-control measures, seeks to prevent school shootings. The Students, Teachers and Officers — or STOP — School Violence Act would authorize grants to train students, teachers and law enforcement officers on how to recognize and report threats of gun violence, and improve security features like locks, lights and metal detectors. A companion bill has bipartisan support in the Senate. These are just a few of the legislations or laws that have been made or changed since the shooting. I found this video that goes over most of the laws that have been passed since the shooting in just a minute and twenty-seven seconds, https://nowthisnews.com/videos/news/more-than-50-state-gun-laws-passed-in-6-months-since-parkland .

There have been many novels written about school shootings one of the most popular one is “Nineteen Minutes” was written in March of 2007 by the #1 New York Times Best Selling Author Jodi Picoult, the mass shooting takes place at Sterling High, in New Hampshire, and lasts for the nineteen minutes of the book’s titular namesake. Peter Houghton, the seventeen-year-old school shooter, changes the lives of many people on March 6, 2007, when he opens fire on his fellow classmates. Nineteen minutes won A Flume award in 2009 as well as the Iowa HS Book Award (given by the Iowa Association of School Librarians) in 2010. Now there are many books, but I chose to mention this one because it was written a few years ago and is still very much so relevant in this day and age. Books aren’t the only things that school shootings are mentioned in, hit artist Shawn Mendes collaborated with Khalid to come out with the song titled “Youth” on May 3^rd of this year. This song talks about waking up and hearing about all the devastation the headlines and not letting the pain turn into hate and in the end take our youth away. Shawn Mendes and Khalid performed this song on the 2018 Billboard Music Awards along with having several if not all of the Parkland survivors on stage with them. This was a powerful and moving performance and shook the country. One last thing I want to talk about is a video titled “Evan” that was released in 2016 by the Sandy Hook Promise Organization. This video shows you how to be aware and to see the signs of a school shooter before they go through with it. Here is the link for you to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8syQeFtBKc .

Overall something that we should learn from this school shooting and something that we should’ve learned in the past is that, now that this is happening so often and isn’t being taken seriously we need to be well prepared and stand up for what we believe in. If no one stands up how are we going to make a change? #NeverAgain.

Works Citied

Aggeler@mmaggeler, Madeleine. “Parkland Students Are Not Happy About Their Clear Backpacks.” The Cut, 3 Apr. 2018, www.thecut.com/2018/04/florida-school-shooting-clear-backpacks.html. Date Accessed 4^th Oct. 2018.

Associated Press / NBC4. “New School Year Starts in Parkland, 6 Months After Shooting.” NBC4 Washington, NBC4 Washington, 15 Aug. 2018, www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/Six-Months-After-Shooting-Stoneman-Douglas-Students-Head-Back-to-Class-490906281.html. Date Accessed 29^th Sept. 2018.

Burch, Audra D. S. “’Are We Going to Die Today?’ Inside a Parkland Classroom as Bullets Flew.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 June 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/us/parkland-shooting-class-survivors.html. Date Accessed 30^th Sept. 2018.

“Evan .” YouTube, YouTube, 2 Dec. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8syQeFtBKc. Date Accessed 4^th Oct. 2018.

Hartocollis, Anemona, and Patricia Mazzei. “She Gave Nikolas Cruz an Ultimatum: The Gun Goes, Or You do. He Chose the Gun.”ProQuest, Mar 20, 2018, https://search.proquest.com/docview/2018985489?accountid=3859. Date Accessed 27^th Sept. 2018.

Haynes, Danielle. “After Parkland: A Timeline of Gun-Control Activism, Legislation.” UPI, UPI, 31 July 2018, www.upi.com/After-Parkland-A-timeline-of-gun-control-activism-legislation/1001522267185/. Date Accessed 4^th Oct. 2018

Karimi, Faith, and Holly Yan. “What’s Changed a Month after the Parkland Shooting.” CNN, Cable News Network, 14 Mar. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/03/14/us/parkland-school-shooting-a-month-later/index.html. Date Accessed 27^th Sept. 2018.

NowThis News. “More Than 50 State Gun Laws Passed in 6 Months Since Parkland.” NowThis, NowThis News, 8 Aug. 2018, nowthisnews.com/videos/news/more-than-50-state-gun-laws-passed-in-6-months-since-parkland. Date Accessed 4^th Oct. 2018.

Randewich, Noel. “Two Months after Parkland Shooting, Gun Makers’ Stocks Are Rallying.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 20 Apr. 2018, www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-stocks/two-months-after-parkland-shooting-gun-makers-stocks-are-rallying-idUSKBN1HR26Y. Date Accessed 28^th Sept. 2018.

Younge, Gary. “Young People Can’t Change US Gun Law Alone—but They Could Tip the Balance.” The Guardian, 23 Feb. 2018. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, link.galegroup.com.ez1.maricopa.edu/apps/doc/QZLWPY240968392/OVIC?u=mcc_chandler&sid=OVIC&xid=f18e73a6. Date Accessed 3^rd Oct. 2018.