Surge in School Shootings
Written by: an Anonymous Member of the MFOLSJ Lead Team
As students in the United States, we go to school to learn in a safe environment but instead are met with mass shootings and the deaths of our peers. Just as recently as December 8th, 2021, two students were shot and killed in the parking lot of a high school football game in Kansas City, Missouri. As the years go on, the amount of mass shootings only increases. Let’s take a look at some of the major shootings of this past year and honor the victims of gun violence.
On November 30th, 2021, four students lost their lives at Oxford High School in Michigan, to another mass shooting making it the 531st gun incident at a school in 2021. Unfortunately, this also happens to be the 652nd mass shooting of 2021. Several were injured, including four students who lost their lives: Hana St. Juliana, 14, Tate Myre, 16, Justin Shilling, 17, and Madisyn Baldwin, 17. These students were siblings, children, artists, athletes, and heroes. We must remember their names and recognize what these students did to help their classmates.
In our very own backyard, our community was faced with another gun violence tragedy that left us in shock and afraid. On a football game Friday night at Westmont High School in Campbell, two men were injured by gun violence around 9:20 pm. During the football game’s final minutes, shots were fired and the game was put on hold until further investigation. While thankfully nobody was killed, people were injured and game attendees will live with the consequences that gun violence causes.
At March for Our Lives San Jose, we believe that there is so much to be done about gun violence all across the South Bay and the United States. As students, we are sick and tired of living with the fear of losing our life to a school shooting and believe that we must take action through advocacy work as well as keep our elected officials accountable.
All info was taken from Gun Violence Archive, CNN, & NBC Bay Area.