Isn’t it just great for students to live in fear to go to school? To knowingly step foot on the grounds of the place that is meant to keep you safe, but is the same place other children have died across the country for over 20 years.

22 years. For 22 years, not a single thing has ever been done. For 22 years, gun violence has run rampant in schools across America:

Columbine in 1999, Sandy Hook in 2012, Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 2017 and most recently Oxford High School on Nov. 30 of this year.

These are four of many shootings that have happened, the most “popular” in the media due to their death count, how old the children were and social media.

School shootings have many deaths, many injured and many wanting change.

How many students have to die and live through these tragedies till something is done?

Well, The Washington Post counted “278,000 children at 298 schools” have been affected by school shootings since 1999. Not died, but were present at these events. They live with survivors’ guilt and trauma. Over 100 children have died and that doesn’t include any educators/adults.

The nation watches families and communities mourn the loss of their loved ones. They send their “thoughts and prayers” but thoughts and prayers never bring back the dead. It’s a partial cop-out, an attempt at empathy.

Politicians weaponize these events following their tweets of prayers: “Do we arm teachers? Do we amend the Second Amendment? Oh, what do we do?” ACTION. Take action! We need to save our children. They need to save us! Children died and continue to die.

Our generation learned to detect if a shooter is at the door (like the kids in the Oxford video did). We learned hiding places in a classroom with monthly drills starting from kindergarten age. We learned to film everything. We learned and adapted to save ourselves while our leaders in the country did nothing but watch and used pain to advance their agendas.

The “Pro-Life” politicians need to defend their pro-life stance and save the living. The politicians who want gun control actually need to fight for it and try passing laws if they want change.

We want change. We want action.

We don’t want to continue to wake up every day before school and wonder: “Will I make it home today?” It was a thought some Robinson students had in the 2019-2020 school year with our school shooting threat. Just a simple threat brings the utmost fear. Imagine the students actually present in a mass shooting.

They’re fighting for their lives. They’re fighting to be heard. We continue to fight to be heard by adults. We fight for actions.

Thoughts and prayers have no effect with no action.