By Victor Beck’ 20

The ROUNDUP

The March for our Lives protest was organized and spearheaded by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The idea for the march came shortly after the shooting at their school on Feb. 14, where 17 students were killed.

The march took place on March 24 in cities all across the country.

Every state participated in a march and more than 800 protests took place around the world in support of the students at Parkland.

However, the main march took place in Washington DC with over 800,000 people in attendance setting a record for the largest single-day protest to ever occur in our nation’s capital.

In fact, more than 15,000 people decided to march locally, all of them ralling to the Phoenix Capitol, demanding stricter gun laws and stronger mental health care.

Many students and faculty also decided to participate and support the cause by marching.

Mr. Tom Donlan,a history of the catholic church teacher, was in attendance at the march.

He said that students are in an important time in history where if they were to say silent they would be doing a disservice to themselves.

“I do think it’s important that young people protest right now. The Florida students witnessed something horrible and now rightly express their pain and outrage,” Donlan said.

“Of course teens should express their voice publicly,” he said. “Young people often have insight and moral clarity that is lacking in their elders.”

He said that young Catholics, specifically students, should offer their support as well as promote human dignity issues.

“I suspect, or at least I hope, that young Catholics today will see that objecting to the shooting and killing of innocent people should be integrated into a broader Catholic vision for promoting human dignity in society,” Donlan said.

Krishna Sinha ’18 is one of a group of students who signed up to walk in the march with the Brophy Advocacy Club.

He said that the march accomplished what it set out to do, but feels there is still a lot more that needs to be done.

“I think it was one step in the right direction, but now I think there is a lot more to be done for sure. For example, I have been getting emails from the March for our Lives for different events, for different kind of bills being introduced and what we can do to better keep our schools and students safe,” Sinha said.

He continued to say that since the issue pertains to our lives and personal safety that we should use our voices to make change.

“I want to come to school and be safe and learn rather than face the threats to my life,” he said. “So I think because it does pertain to our safety, students should advocate more and for things they are interested in as well,” Sinha said.

Liam Nelson ’20 wasn’t at the march but feels that a political opinion shouldn’t influence how you viewed it.

“No matter your political opinion, these teens are worthy of applause simply for their ability to take their anger and put it into action in a way that has caused such change and conversation,” said Nelson.

Nelson adds that even though most highschool students can’t vote, it’s still important to let our voices be heard.

“Despite many teens being unable to vote in politics, it’s constantly affecting the world around us and our future in that world,” Nelson said. “Advocating for issues can improve voter registration and make people more aware of how their government works, it can help people become aware of their local government and how that is important. All of this helps better the world in the future.”