Teenagers speaking up
As I’m sure all of you are aware, on Feb. 14th, 2018 there was yet another school shooting. This time seventeen students and teachers lost their lives and many others were injured. As with the other mass shootings, there has been a national conversation about how to end these terrible acts of violence. But something different happened after the latest shooting in Florida. I was watching the news as the events were unfolding, and they began to interview students that survived. I remember thinking that they were so passionate and well spoken. They just experienced this tragic event in which many of their friends had died, and they were using the opportunity to say they had had enough. They didn’t want to fear going to school anymore. In the days afterwards, they became more organized and loudly using the platform they were given to say never again. They all had different thoughts and opinions about how to end the violence, but that is not what I want to write about it.
I want us to take notice that teenagers are leading the discussion. As a youth minister that has worked with teenagers for twenty years, I’m excited by that. I’m saddened by the circumstances that led to it, but encouraged and hopeful by the conversation. Unfortunately, many on social media have chosen to attack them, but it has not swayed them. We don’t have to agree with every solution they are proposing, but I think we can all get behind their passion to have this never happen again.
For the past few weeks during our Sunday evening youth meetings, we have discussed the current events. The first thing I asked our youth was how often they think about school shootings while they are in school. All of them say they at least think about it every once in a while. Something will happen in the hallways that will trigger the thought. I don’t know about you, but that is not something I ever thought about when I was in school. It was just not something I ever had to worry about. Then we began to talk about advocacy and how we should use our voice to speak up for injustices. We read different scripture verses that talked about speaking up for the most vulnerable among us. Interestingly, no where in the Bible does it say you have to wait till you are a certain age before you can speak up. I encouraged our teenagers to use their voice now and in the future. One of the things the youth decided to do was to write Rep. Wittman about their concerns with school safety. Each of them had different ideas about how to address the issue and some didn’t have any ideas but simply wrote; “please find a way to keep us safe at school.”
It’s unfortunate that it took a tragic event for us to give teenagers a platform. But I would encourage you to notice what they are capable of, even if you don’t agree with everything they are saying. Encourage them to continue to speak up for injustices, and find the injustices YOU are passionate about and speak up! Also, let’s all pray and work towards this never happening again.
