Students from Golda Meir School joined hundreds of thousands of classmates around the country on March 14, as part of the National School Walkout event. The protest honored the 17 victims of the Parkland, Florida school shooting, and put pressure on lawmakers to pass gun control legislation. In Milwaukee, 13 year old Daisy Kiekhofer co-organized the student effort at Golda Meir School. She recently won 2nd Place in the writing contest for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration.
An Essay by Daisy Kiekhofer
On February 14th, 2018, seventeen students and teachers lost their lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland Florida. Students no longer feel safe to receive an education because school shootings are happening so frequently. Even though children, students, teachers, and other adults continue to raise their voices and ask for gun control from our legislatures, their voices go unheard.
On March 14th, 2018 at Golda Meir School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we, the students, will rise up and voice our needs by walking out of class for seventeen minutes, representing the seventeen lives lost in Parkland, Florida. We, the students of Golda Meir, will no longer sit down and watch children murdered at our very own schools.
With this walkout, we seek the eyes and ears of the public. In order to make a change, we will raise our fists and speak this truth “We will be the change.” Never again will a child, holding the future of America in their palms, be taken from us. The children that have lost their lives must not be forgotten.
At the Golda Meir walkout we took time to honor the friends and families of the victims of Parkland, Florida. We understand that their families have been deeply affected and will be changed forever. However, it seems as if our laws have not changed. Having weapons like AR-15s on the street puts the students of America in danger. We intend to continue to march until a change is made in our legislative system. We will not stop until the numbers of children dying from school shootings reaches a firm zero.
This walkout is intended to bring change. Change looks like banning bump stocks and semi-automatic guns. Change looks like applying Universal Background Checks whenever a gun is to be purchased. Change does not look like arming teachers. Change is putting out the fire, not adding to it. The students of Golda Meir will be wearing orange ribbons to represent our support of gun control. If our legislature cannot hear our cries, they must be able to see it with our bright, loud, and powerful ribbons.
From this walkout we seek a time where the words, “Never Again,” will be truthful. From this walkout, we seek a change in society where an automatic gun is no longer viewed as a symbol of status, power, and style, but as a taker of student lives.
I see this walkout, the words from students, the shooting in Parkland, and the 14,000 empty shoes from the 7,000 children killed by gun violence on the lawn of the United States Capitol as a symbol of needed change.
