In the aftermath of the school shooting Feb. 14 in Parkland, Florida, people all across the country agonized over how a tragedy like this could happen.
For the sixth-grade students at St. Rose of Lima Catholic School, it was incomprehensible that children around their age would have to worry about being shot and killed while going to school.
They were scared and angry and confused. As young people around the country walked out of their classrooms, marching and demanding gun control and changes to existing laws, they wanted their voices to be heard, too.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“School’s a safe place, where you go to learn. You shouldn’t have to worry about someone pulling a gun out in the middle of school,” said Dylan Henry, a sixth-grade student at St. Rose.
With the help of their social studies teacher, Joe Setnor, the St. Rose sixth-graders put their questions and concerns to paper, penning letters to congressional leaders to express their despair at the lives lost to gun violence.
Students asked about ways to improve school safety, how leaders in Washington are addressing the issue, and why in the aftermath of shootings like this that it was important to protect the Second Amendment.
The experience not only attracted attention and response from politicians such as Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, but showed that despite their young age, their perspective was important.
“It felt special that our words mattered,” said Emma Phelps, a sixth-grader at St. Rose. “I felt confident in what I wrote, and felt that things needed changed.”
For the St. Rose students, writing letters was an opportunity to be heard, something not all young people get.
“I wanted to feel like I had a voice,” Josh Staehler said. “I wanted to know what’s being done to make school safer.”
Brayden Petro voiced that he wanted to more effective and stronger gun laws, to improve the background checks and research that is done before someone can buy a gun. Gabbie Sejas was motivated because school should be a safe place where students don’t have to be afraid.
Phelps was moved to put her emotions down on paper. She wrote a lengthy letter that touched on her fear following the school shootings, how to prevent those tragedies in the future and how she felt about the different perspectives being expressed by young people.
“One of the things I wrote about was how sad this all is. My dad has told me that he used to be able to ride his bike to school and do all these things, and not have to worry about the world. Now, it’s like you can’t do anything,” Phelps said.
The letter-writing initiative was led by the students. Following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, the students asked some basic questions about why this had happened and how violence like this could be stopped. The ensuing walkouts by young people around the country also generated discussion about the right to protest.
“Some people even changed their minds about how they felt as they learned more about it,” Setnor said. “After talking to their parents, I think a lot of students were concerned that Second Amendment rights be protected.”
Not all of the students felt that the protests that had been organized were having a positive impact.
“There’s no need to just walk out of school. I understand why they’re doing it, but I don’t think it’s a good enough reason to walk out,” Henry said.
All of the discussion prompted Setnor to suggest writing letters to politicians representing them.
“It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing. We talked about it, did some research about it and then had them send a letter to their representatives,” he said. “I told them I was not going to read their letters, all I wanted to do was make sure they did write something.”
The students were skeptical that they would get any kind of response from Hollingsworth and Rep. Luke Messer, the two Congressional leaders they reached out to.
“I didn’t think we have a voice. I thought we’d just be ignored,” Staehler said.
But three weeks after sending the letters off, Hollingsworth contacted the school, asking if he could come to the school to talk about gun control and violence in schools. On April 4, he met with the sixth-graders, as well as other students from St. Rose, to discuss their concerns.
“I was kind of surprised, but at the same time, I was glad, because I could ask the questions I wanted to ask and get to know our representative better, besides just looking him up on the internet,” Kayleigh Sloop said..
During the hour-long conversation, the St. Rose students were able to have most of their pressing questions addressed by Hollingsworth, with topics centered on gun violence but also expanding into issues of faith and the process of government in general.
The experience was enlightening for the students, validating their feelings about gun violence and reinforcing the idea that even though they’re young, their opinions are still important.
“I thought it was exciting, because we got to share what we thought about the issue to our representative, and he could spread that around,” Ries Shilten said.
