Baltimore Students Orchestrate A Walk Out For School Safety

On Tuesday March 6, several Baltimore City Schools, public and private, marched for safer schools in response to the school shooting in Florida. The students walked to City Hall for the protest.

According to the Baltimore Sun, nine city schools walked to City Hall chanting “Guns Down Grades Up.” Baltimore City Mayor Catherine Pugh believes that students should express their feelings towards these issues. She plans to send city students on a bus to Washington, D.C. for a national march on the issue. This will cost nearly a hundred thousand dollars. Some students believe that this will not actually help the problem, and that it is an easy way for politicians to sweep it under the rug.

When I first saw that Baltimore schools were taking action against the problem of guns and school safety, I saw it on W-BAL TV’s Facebook live. Students were being live streamed as they marched across the city. The comments were mostly full of adults shaming students for leaving school to march for a cause. Change does not occur when people are silent. Most change that transpired in this country happened because people fought for it. Former activists most likely faced the same ridicule and judgment; however, they kept striving for change.

Gun control is a very stagnant issue in our country, and we as Americans should be proud of young students for marching for change. These students should feel safe while they are receiving their education. With many of the other problems adolescents endure, they should not have to fear for their safety while in school. This is a problem that directly effects them, and they are taking action.

Training and arming teachers is not the solution to the problem. Adding more guns to the equation will not protect students; it will only complicate an already difficult issue. Politicians should listen to these students because education is an important component to every society. These same students will run this country in twenty years or less. Therefore, it is fair to assume they have an idea of what kind of society they want to exist in.

The reoccurring issue of mass shootings is something that America does not make meaningful strides towards reforming. It is a toxic cycle of discussing the issues and letting it continue. The Trump Administration’s new solution is counterproductive, and it makes citizens uncomfortable. Real change needs to happen, so there will be less mass shootings. This problem will continue to persist unless lawmakers become serious about gun control.