Organizer March for Our Lives said the statewide school walkouts “speak to the urgency and frustration young people feel after yet another shooting has been met with only ‘thoughts and prayers.'”
by Brett Wilkins, CommonDreams.org
Joined by educators, parents, and gun control advocates, thousands of Georgia students on Friday staged a classroom walkout organized by the youth-led March for Our Lives “to demand a future free from gun violence” following the September 4 mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, the deadliest such event in the state’s history.
March for Our Lives (MFOL)—which was founded in the wake of the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—said that Friday’s walkouts “speak to the urgency and frustration young people feel after yet another shooting has been met with only ‘thoughts and prayers.'”
Two Apalachee students—Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both age 14—and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie were shot dead by a 14-year-old armed with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle. Nine others were wounded in the attack.
The shooter was arrested and charged with four counts of murder. His father, Colin Gray, was also arrested and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children for purchasing the gun used in the shooting and giving it to his son.
“Across Georgia, Republican leaders—like those who control the majority on the Cobb Board of Education and both chambers of the Georgia General Assembly—refuse to take commonsense action to protect our communities and our lives from preventable gun violence,” MFOL said.
RIGHT NOW: THOUSANDS of students at DOZENS of schools across Georgia are walking out to demand action to keep us safe in schools. We won't let anyone forget Apalachee, or every child and young person who's died to gun violence, at school, at home, or in our neighborhoods.… pic.twitter.com/IueAftGJEa— March For Our Lives ☮️🟧 (@AMarch4OurLives) September 20, 2024
The group continued:
We will never allow our elected officials to forget the senseless act of violence that could have been prevented at Apalachee High School. We will honor the lives of Cristina Irimie, Christian Angulo, Mason Schermerhorn, and Richard Aspinwall with action. Everyone has the fundamental right to feel safe in our schools and our communities, and we will continue to fight until that freedom is a reality for all.
Guns are the No. 1 killer of children and teens in our country, and far too many educators and students go to school with the daily fear that their community could be next. This failure is a choice that our leaders are making for us. Today, we join organizers and students from over 30 high schools all across Georgia in calling on Gov. Brian Kemp, Lieutenant Gov. Burt Jones, and the Georgia General Assembly to commit their support for the passage of the Pediatric Health Safe Storage Act at the start of the 2025 legislative session.
“The Georgia General Assembly and Gov. Brian Kemp, the sad truth is that they have made us feel less safe,” said Saif Hasan, a senior at Lambert High School and county organizing deputy director at the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition who led hundreds of students in a walkout on Friday.
“This weekend, we’re going to be out knocking on doors in Suwanee, Roswell, and East Cobb to help elect new leaders who will build the future we deserve,” Hasan added. “We’re going to be out talking to Georgians about safe storage to make sure kids my age are never scared to go to school.”
Apalachee High School junior Sasha Contreras said during a Friday walkout rally in Gwinnett that “I wasn’t going to speak today but seeing and hearing everyone’s courage in showing up today and taking action made me realize that my voice was important.”
“There is nothing being done to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again. As a student that has [Advanced Placement] exams at the end of the school year as well as leadership positions, I understand the importance of going back to school,” Contreras added. “However, many of my peers including myself feel anxious about returning with no preventative measures in place.”
March for Our Lives director of organizing Gaby Salazar said that “we are so proud to support this student-led action, but heartbroken that we keep having to walk out of our classes again and again to get our leaders to listen to us.”
“Guns kill more kids than any other cause in the state of Georgia,” Salazar added. “More than cancer, more than car accidents. Even though a sweeping majority of Americans support commonsense gun laws, we know it’s an uphill battle to convince state lawmakers to value our lives over the gun lobby’s money. But young people in Georgia will not stop fighting until gun violence is a relic of the past.”
