By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
As a Bowling Green High School freshman, Calla Higgins organized a student walkout against gun violence.
That was 172 school shootings ago.
Now, as a senior, Calla led her classmates again during the national walkouts across the U.S. last Friday.
“By participating today you are taking a stand for something bigger than yourself,” Calla said to the estimated 200-250 BGHS students who joined the walkout. “We as students demand action.”
BGHS Principal Dan Black said he met with the organizers prior to the walkout about civil disobedience and students expressing their concerns.
While his priority is academics, Black said the protest was brief and scheduled over lunchtime.
“The disruption was minimized,” he said.
Calla presented some sobering statistics. So far this year, there have been 46 school shootings in the U.S. Since the year 1999, there have been 572 deaths, more than 1,262 injuries and more than 450,000 people experiencing school shootings.
“Each number, we have to remember, was a person,” she said. “A child with their whole life ahead of them. Staff members who tried to protect their students. Teenagers who should be making college decisions. Families and friends affected day after day.”
The grim fact is that Bowling Green High School students have not known a time absent of mass shootings at schools. They have seen school emergency drills expand to mass shooting exercises – knowing they are more likely to be killed at school by a gun than a tornado or fire.
Other nations have had mass shootings, however, they have taken action to prevent future tragedies, Calla pointed out.
After a mass shooting in Australia, that country changed its laws, and has only had one other mass shooting in the last 28 years, she said.
Great Britain banned semiautomatic rifles and added regulations for handguns, after a school shooting there. It now has one of the lowest rates of death by guns. After shootings in Canada, Norway and Germany, those countries all tightened their laws, and the gun violence numbers dropped.
“The United States, however, no change. Time after time we have these losses of life and nothing has changed,” Calla said.
While the Second Amendment ensures the rights of a well regulated militia – the U.S. does little to regulate guns.
“We cannot have a teenager having an assault rifle so powerful that when used in a school shooting, parents had to identify their children by the shoes left as there was too much damage,” Calla said.
“We cannot have parents buying bulletproof backpacks instead of a pink unicorn backpack for their kindergarteners,” she said. “We cannot have students putting a classmate’s blood on them and attempting to play dead to stay alive, we cannot have students leaving for school not knowing if they’ll come home.”
“How many more innocent lives must be sacrificed before we say enough is enough?” Calla said to her classmates. “How many more classrooms must be stained with the blood of our future?”
The walkout, Calla said, was not about gun control, but about protecting children.
In the U.S., firearms are the leading cause of death in the age range of 3-19. Studies have shown that over 4.6 million people live in a home with at least one unlocked and loaded gun. Most parents with guns wrongfully believe their children don’t know where the gun is stored, Calla said. Secure storage prevents tragedies. Over half of the weapons that have been used in school shootings have come from a family member or friend, she added.
Calla also encouraged her fellow students to be aware that 89% of school shooters have shown warning signs. “If we pay attention, reach out and help, and report threats, we can end this,” she said.
“We cannot allow fear to paralyze us. We cannot accept this as the new normal. We must rise, united and unwavering, to demand change,” she said. “We must demand action from our lawmakers to enact common sense gun laws to provide the well regulated militia in our Constitution that can protect our children and communities. We must also address the root causes of gun violence, such as mental health issues, poverty, and social isolation.”
“We need more than thoughts and prayers,” Calla said. “The children in Minneapolis last week were at mass, they were praying. Thoughts and prayers did not save them. We demand change. True change.”
