by Nyiah Smith, Reporter

Days after one of the deadliest massacres at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed seventeen innocent children and teachers, a few of the surviving victims started a movement: #NeverAgain. The Florida teens used social media and traditional ways such as television broadcasts to get their messages to spread worldwide.

“I think it is very inspiring to see people that are our age actually making moves politically, Gianna Antignani, senior at JTHS said. “Like many other movements in history, children and students are the biggest activists. Also, it is interesting to be a part of history and watching it unfold in front of me.”

The White House’s plans are to arm teachers with guns and provide firearm training to teachers and endorsing a bill to tighten the federal background check system. The NRA supports the idea of allowing armed teachers in schools. Many of the Parkland students have urged Washington to toughen restrictions on gun purchases, but the National Rifle Association heavily opposes.

“Armed teachers actually is scarier than one armed person in the school. What if the teacher is the shooter,” Taylor Huth, senior at JTHS said. “I don’t think teachers should be armed. Becoming a teacher takes a lot of responsibility, one that should not be to fire a gun at an intruder. Protecting the community is not a teacher’s job, educating the community is. If heavily armed SWAT teams are entering a school with the idea that someone is armed and they come across an armed teacher, that could lead to more innocent deaths. Teachers are human, they also have the ability to use guns for something they are not intended for, so I think just trying to put a band-aid on a situation, hoping it will all go as planned won’t work. There need to be actual gun law changes,” Gianna Antignani said.

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are raising awareness and pressuring Congress to act on gun control. The students are encouraging kids across the country to create and publicly share their videos using the hashtags #WhatIf and #NeverAgain. There is also going to be a national March For Our Lives in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, March 24. Students around the country have also participated in national school walkouts to show their support.

“I agree with the idea of gun control. There has been a disturbing amount of mass shootings that have taken place within the past couple of years and something has to finally be done about the issue. Hundreds of innocent lives have been taken by these weapons and its sickening. It is time for action, and it is my belief that gun control is an amazing start for our generation and moving into the future,” said Tirrell George, senior at JTHS.

Florida’s governor, Rick Scott, opposed against the NRA by signing a bill to set a three day waiting period for most gun purchases of long guns and raising the minimum age for buying weapons to age twenty-one and banning the possession of bump stocks. The #NeverAgain movement’s GoFundMe page has generated more than $2.5 million in donations to provide relief and financial support to the victims and families.