The STEM school shooting was in my school district.
Me and my band friends were playing a card game in the band room this afternoon after school when we were interrupted by a lockdown. Not a drill. A real, actual lockdown. We heard from the radios the teachers carried around the words "school" and "shooting." My friends and I looked each other dead in the eye and quickly followed our band director to the front security desk, where everyone was staying. We were kept there for an hour before our parents were let inside one by one to get us.
During that time I looked up on the news what happened. And then it hit me. Four girls I'm friends with from Scouts attend the STEM school. The one dead and seven injured in the shooting? Could've been any one of them.
So this is what it takes for people to open their eyes. I have tried and tried again and again to promote nonviolence at my school, but God damn it, nobody will listen. My voice is drowned out by their phones and gossip.
Will it have to take our best friends being shot to open our eyes? We are so out of touch with our emotions. We need to teach boys it's okay to cry. We need to teach kids that their words have impact. We need to teach them it's okay to reach out, that their are so many healthy coping mechanisms out there. We need equality, emotion, and love.
