In Response to the shooting on February 14th, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, students across the nation are standing up and calling for a change on guns laws.

In response to this tragic event, there have been a number of student-led protests aimed at gun-control. Exactly a week after the shooting, survivors went to the state’s Capital, to demand action. Throughout the country, teenagers are rising up in opposition to the gun laws that allowed Cruz access to 10 firearms, including an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle which New York Times correspondent, Jack Healy, referred to as “the powerful weapon used by a number of gunmen to slaughter scores of people in Newtown, San Bernardino, Las Vegas, Parkland and beyond.”

As a result of this latest incident, teenagers are calling for gun control by walking out of school. On February 21st, students at Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin, NJ, walked out of school to spend 17 minutes in silence out of deference to the 17 people killed in the Parkland shooting. Additional walkouts are being planned. On March 14th, student activists will march in Washington, D.C. in support of school safety and gun control and on April 20th, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting, #NationalSchoolWalkout is due to take place.

Kai Koerber, of Parkland’s Stoneman Douglas High School, was just one of many students to meet with lawmakers. Koerber said, “The legislation needs to change, because we’ve fallen victim to lazy legislation for far too long”.

Even with the growing support for change, a growing fear coincides. Dumont High School, a twenty minute drive from Montvale, was placed on lockdown for four hours after a a student threatened to violence in the school. Although a gun was not at school, a gun was found at the house of the current sophomore.

In response to the Dumont scandal, an anonymous Hills student has stated, “it’s scary how real the threat is, things definitely need to change and we, as students, need to speak out.”

So, Hills’ students, how will we speak out?