In the wake of the brutal massive shooting in Parkland Florida on Valentine’s Day, the high school finally reopened. In an attempt to prevent anything similar from ever happening again, they’ve implemented some new safety precautions. Many are unhappy with them.
Students have formed an organization called March for Our Lives. Members do not believe that these precautions will do anything helpful. In fact, they think that these measures are simply making the school feel like a jail instead of a place for education.
Students have begun to form a rebellion against the see through backpacks as well. They feel that the transparent backpacks to actually do nothing to help prevent attacks, and are simply stifling any privacy that they have.
Some lined their backpacks with an inordinate amount of tissue paper to hide what’s actually inside. Others took a more comical approach like Cameron Kasky, pictured below.
Another teenager took a statistical approach to getting her point across. She took the summation of NRA donations to politician Marco Rubio and then divided that figure by the number of students that are currently enrolled in school in Florida.
With this level of immediate backlash, it’s clear to say that officials did not make the correct choices in protecting the students. While undoubtedly their heart is in the right place, much work is needed in this arena.
At the end of the day, simple fixes like this simply act as a Band-Aid covering the real issue at large. The United States needs to get to the root cause of why these incidents are happening rather than just trying to cover them up with feel-good, easy solutions.