“Nicholas Dworet was a star swimmer, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with a scholarship to the University of Indianapolis this fall. His whole life was ahead of him… He was 17-year’s-old. Nicholas Dworet, we will remember,” CNN reporter, Anderson Cooper, stated one day after the tragic Parkland, Florida school shooting.

  News of the shooting spread nationwide on February 14 when a shooter stalked and opened fire on students and teachers. Nikolas Cruz, who later confessed to the crime, was dropped off at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School by an Uber around 2 P.M., and within 10 minutes claimed the lives of 17 people as well as injuring 14 more, according to CNN reports.

  “It’s almost inconsolable to my heart. It’s heartbreaking, but that word doesn’t even describe it because no one should have to face what those students faced, ever, and teachers shouldn’t have to face that,” says Kerri Carlton, principal at Sedro-Woolley High School.

  There were 17 lives taken on February 14, 2018: seven 14-year-olds dead, as well as five other teenage victims; a Geography teacher and an athletic director, each with their own loving and mourning families; and a football coach, a hero in this tragic event, who sacrificed his life by throwing himself in the line of fire to protect his students.

  While some scarred students and teachers try to collect themselves after the loss of their fellow peers, others have reached out to social media as well as started their own movements to earn a ban on automatic and assault weapons, such as an AR-15-styled ones, which were used in the Parkland shooting as well as in Las Vegas in 2017 during a country music festival that left 58 individuals dead.

  Sedro-Woolley High School students are organizing a school walkout on March 14 for 17 minutes to protest gun violence.

  Large corporations have informed the nation that they are listening to the demands of gun control activists, and are taking assault rifles off the shelves. Dick’s Sporting Goods has stopped selling assault rifles such as AR 15s, and Walmart has raised their minimum age requirement from 18 to 21.

  Because of the fact that Walmart stopped selling assault styled rifles in 2015, they didn’t need to take it down from their website. But what they did take down and out of stores was toys resembling assault syled rifle.

  Parents of victims have stood up as well, not to argue about gun control, but to fight for the safety of schools. Anthony Pallock, who lost his 18-year-old daughter, Meadow, in the shooting appeared to answer questions from sources such as Fox and CNN.

  “That’s [gun control] a big issue in the country, and you’re not gonna get everyone together on it. But, we’re gonna get everyone together on fixing our schools,” Pollack tells Fox News Sunday host, Chris Wallace, in an interview. “The American people, we just want our schools safe. We don’t want to talk about guns right now.”

  Keeping schools safe is a recurring theme, especially with continuous shootings all across the country. Over every social media platform, people either fight for their 2nd amendment rights, fight for gun control, or fight for safety.

   “School districts needs to up the school security,” says Ariah Macagba, a freshman at  Sedro-Woolley High School.

   These stories are traumatizing for the people who are reading them, but more

traumatizing for the ones who face them.

  “Students shouldn’t have to be traumatized by the other people who make bad decisions,” says SWHS sophomore Anahy Alcazar-Salinas.

  Shooter Nikolas Cruz was a “loner” and some say that they think that’s one of the reasons why he did what he did.

   Camden Dowhaniuk a Sophomore at our school said he also thought the cause of the Florida school shooting came down to the shooter’s past.

   “Bad parenting,” said Dowhaniuk.  “They were probably neglected when they were younger so when they grow up they want to let their anger out on other people.”’

  Both students and staff members have been discussing what should be done about our country’s current gun laws.

  Mackenzie Grimm, a freshman, says she thinks access and parenting played a role in the shooting.

   “I think the what has happened with the last school shooting has affected me negatively because I wouldn’t want something like that to happen at our school and I think that it says something about the parents of those teenagers and that they were able to get a hold of their guns.”

   Carlton says she thinks people who should not have access to guns are getting their hands on them.

   “My husband hunts and my son went through hunter safety,” says Carlton, “And I think it’s ok to have guns for specific purposes, but I believe that right now there are people that have access to weapons that they shouldn’t have access too.”

   Arming teachers has come up as a solution to the problem of schoool shootings, but Carlton worries that this would do more harm than good.

   “What is your accuracy going to be? Like that is scary because I’ve been target shooting before and I can hit a target pretty well, but I never want to be faced with shooting another person ever, and I think most of out teachers don’t ever want to be faced with that question either. I would really have a difficult time allowing someone to carry a weapon on this campus.  In terms of armed body guards. I think even if you have armed security guards that if someone wants to do damage they will find a way to do damage.

  This is a recurring massacre, and every year in America hundreds of men, women, and children die in meaningless and preventable acts. Whether it be armed teachers, gun control, safer schools, or constant security, America is demanding something be done.