Students plan to attend a Washington, D. C., march.
KALAMAZOO, MI — A high school senior said she recently did not know how to use her voice to demand political change, but a viral video bringing her message to thousands of people is showing she and students across the country are being heard.
„It’s been amazing to see how loud our voices have become and how much people are listening to hear what we have to say,“ Kalamazoo Central Senior Jenna Bowker said.
Bowker is one of a group of eight Kalamazoo Central High School students that created an online petition demanding school safety and responsible gun policy changes in the wake of a Florida high school shooting that left 17 dead.
She is featured in an Al Jazeera video about a March 14 walkout at Kalamazoo Central High School that has been viewed nearly 700,000 times.
Demonstrations in Kalamazoo County and across Michigan were part of a national school walkout on the one-month anniversary of the deadly Florida shooting.
„We are tired of being told our voices don’t matter because we’re kids,“ Bowker said in the video filmed at the high school. „We’re tired of being told we’re safe when we know we could be safer, and we’re tired of being told there’s nothing the government can do when we know they were elected to protect us.“
Bowker said gun violence had not affected her personally until Feb. 20,2016, when two of her relatives, Tyler Smith and Rich Smith, were among six people shot and killed by a gunman in Kalamazoo.
Tyler Smith’s mother and Rich Smith’s wife, Laurie Smith, is the second cousin of Bowker’s mother, she said.
„People I was close to, I saw them in so much pain,“ she said. „They were two members of a family of four. All of the sudden half of the family is gone.“
The students‘ petition for gun reform has gathered more than 250,000 today, more than a month after it was created.
„Adults have failed us,“ the petition states. „Everyday, we students walk into school with the promise of an education without threat of violence. However, it has become increasingly clear that hallways of schools across America are no longer a guaranteed safe haven.“
Kalamazoo Central High School students have had meetings with politicians after posting the petition and participated in a rally in Lansing over gun reform. They received a letter from former president Barack Obama, praising their efforts.
Obama credits Kalamazoo students‘ leadership after Florida shooting
Bowker noted that the group has received some criticism because they are focusing only on guns and not other issues like mental health.
„This is our focus – gun legislation,“ she said. „There are other issues as well.“
This weekend, she and three other Kalamazoo Central students who helped create the petition are planning to go to Washington, D. C., she said, to join in a national protest on gun reform.
