March 14, 2018. National School Walkout day took place exactly one month after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Notre Dame Prep participated in the national remembrance of the 17 students that died through an informative and thorough presentation led by seniors Gabby, Liz, and Noelani. After the girls’ presentation, students, given the choice to walkout or not, reflected on this meaningful decision. Huddled in the school courtyard with ribbons of orange tied around their hair, the students who chose to participate gathered in silence around 17 candles that were lit as the names of those who passed away were read. Prior to this day, students were encouraged to make signs to show their passion and thoughts on the incident.

According to a report from CNN, after only 11 weeks into 2018, 17 school shootings that resulted in casualties have already occurred across United States.  On January 20 in North Carolina, Najee Ali Baker was shot to death at a party at Wake Forest University. In Kentucky, a 15-year-old student shot 16 people at Marshall County High School on January 23. A fight escalated to a shooting in a high school in Philadelphia on January 31, wounding a 32-year-old man. On February 1 in Los Angeles, two students were shot in the head and the wrist, and bullets grazed two others. A student was shot five times in a parking lot in Nashville on February 9. On the campus of Central Michigan University, two people were shot to death on March 2. And in our very own state, an armed student shot two students at Great Mills High School in Maryland on March 20. These incidents are not even half of the 17 shootings that occurred in the three months of 2018, and do not come close to the number of shootings in the past ten years.

Compared to other countries, the mass shootings and homicides in the United States expose a massive problem. Our modern society can feel sympathy for our fellow citizens who have suffered from mass shootings, but we have almost become desensitized to it. The youth will grow up thinking school shootings have a high possibility to occur. We can encourage and practice lock down drills as much as we can, but if we do not stop the problem from the roots, it will never be solved. At the end of the walkout, Gabby reminded us that as young educated women, we have the power to transform the world and seek justice in the damaged world that surrounds us. I remind you to do the same.

Ahmed, Saeed and Christina Walker. “There has been, on average, 1 school shooting every week this year.” CNN.com, 24 March 2018, [https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/02/us/school-shootings-2018-list-trnd/index.html].