Awareness about issues of gun violence has spread due to protests held all over The United States of America. These protests have been occurring for years, but students have taken part in these protests by setting up walkouts so that all students that want to can take action. This is something that a group of Silver Creek High School students took part in to speak out and create awareness about the issues guns bring to school.

Gun violence has been an extreme issue in America, especially involving schools. On April 5th, students from all around the nation did something about it. They created a walkout where students would walk out of their classes and join together to protest gun violence. This is not only something that happened in Silver Creek High School, it became a national thing. The word was spread by people posting on social media and sharing the news.

One of the students at Silver Creek who took action was freshman Isabel Ammerman. She took part in organizing the walkout for the whole school and educated herself on the issues of guns in the process.

“I went to a meeting with Student Demand Action [an organization to help students speak up] and learned how to organize a walkout and then I spread the word about it,” states Ammerman.

Ammerman also had strong reasons as to why this cause was so important and how this will benefit the students and provide them with a chance to take action. She explains the importance of this awareness that is being spread and how much students are truly affected by events of gun violence.

“Having gun violence looming over our lives is scary…without awareness we can’t get change and without change nothing will get better, this way we can help make change even when we can’t vote,” said Ammerman.

At the walkout, there were protests and students that were sharing stories, poems and experiences about gun violence. Lillianna Wetzel, a freshman at Silver Creek, crafted a moving poem which she shared at the walkout protest.

“I don’t want to live in fear…I don’t want to fear gun shoots and screams…I just want to know I’m safe. Safe from guns,” states Wetzel in their poem.

Wetzel shared the passion behind the poem and the reasons as to why she created and shared this poem with her peers at the walkout.

“I wrote this poem because I’m angry. I want people to hear my voice and the voices of all the angry kids like me. The kids who are sick of being scared of being shot, their friends being shot,” states Wetzel.

All of the students who attended the protest and shared stories were shown to be emotional, inspiring, and most definitely impactful for Ammerman.

“Being able to hear others talk about it is so empowering,” said Ammerman.

Ammerman collected research and educated herself on the truth of gun violence and the laws and bills that there currently are in the government. She uses the research to share how people can start making change.

“Some ways to make change soon is… there is a current bill for assault weapons banned so if more people reach out to the legislature we can make this bill happen,” says Ammerman.

In the end, the walkout was effective. It gave Silver Creek students a platform to create change. This is the start of something that can become much bigger.

“The more people that get involved the more people will hear,” states Ammerman.

Resources:
Students demand action.org
Text students to 644-33
[email protected]
[email protected]