Camas students to march for gun control

Camas High School students will join the National School Walkout, a youth-led movement calling on government leaders to enact common sense gun control legislation, at 10 a.m., Wednesday, March 14.

The march, a response to the latest mass school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, will last 17 minutes — one minute for each of the Parkland victims.

Five Camas High students — Monica Chang, Catherine Garcia, Abigail Jiang, Tanner O’Brien and Sarah Wells-Moran — organized the walkout at the local high school, and met with Camas High Principal Dr. Liza Sejkora on Feb. 23 to discuss their plans.

Chang, a Camas High junior, said students plan to read the names of the victims, give a short biography for each and take a moment of silence during the 17-minute walkout.

So far, Camas High administrators have shown support for the walkout, and have told the students they will not suspend participants.

Chang said she was shaken by the Parkland shooting, especially given how closely the Florida community mirrored her own town of Camas.

“As a student, it is only natural to imagine yourself in that horrific situation,” Chang said. “I feel despair and outrage every time I hear about a mass shooting. Outrage that mass shootings are normal. Outrage that mass shootings in America are a blur. A blur.”

Now, however, Chang is feeling something new — hope that something will change as the nation’s youth exercise their political voice.

“It was so easy to imagine myself in their shoes,” Chang said of the Parkland victims. “I initially felt overwhelmed and powerless, since I am still underage and unable to vote. However, after seeing the inspiring actions of the students at MSD High, I realized that voting is not the only way to have a political voice. Many Camas students feel similarly sickened and tired of the mass shootings in America, and the complacency that follows. It is unacceptable.”

O’Brien, one of the other walkout organizers, said he believes sitting quietly after years of mass shootings is equivalent to complacency.

“The shooting in Florida was horrific and I just had to speak out against this type of preventable violence,” O’Brien said. “As a student, these shootings really scare me.”

He added that, although he knows it’s unlikely that the next shooting would be at Camas High, the fact that it’s not impossible scares him.

“It’s impossible not to consider the chance that it could be, which is a very scary path to explore,” O’Brien said. “The fact that it’s abnormal for a student not to have considered a potential shooter situation is what scares me the most. It’s also what motivates me to put as much effort as I can into making our country safer for all of us.”

The Camas walkout organizers have written a detailed letter demanding specific gun control items, which they’ll send to U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler. Chang said they’re gathering other Camas students’ signatures for the letter over the next few weeks.

“It’s essential for people my age to understand that we have a voice and it is our responsibility to use our voices to make the world a better place, no matter how small the change may seem.” O’Brien said. “What I truly want is actual, effective legislation regarding gun violence. I want the cycle of non-reform and moving on to end.”

The students are reaching out beyond their district to schools such as Columbia River High School, Mountain View High School and Skyview High School to help organize walkouts at those schools, and gather as many signatures as possible for their letter from students throughout the region.

Want to learn more about what local students are doing to help enact gun control? Visit the Camas High @NeverAgainSWWA, the social media account that the Camas students created on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to get the word out.

“I truly believe that walkouts like these demonstrate our refusal to accept how things are and demand we strive for what could be. Demand we live in a world where students don’t have to think about what to do if someone attacks their school. A world where attacks like the Stoneman Douglas High School event don’t happen on a fortnightly basis, or a monthly basis, or even a yearly one,” O’Brien said. “Change like that starts with us, and I am not afraid to speak out. Not when lives are on the line.”