On November 14th, Ingraham High School students led a march to protest against gun violence. The photos pictured above are of some students (ourselves included) at the protest. Pictured on signs and posters around us were sayings like “Am I next?” and “Class of 2024, I hope so.” The Seattle Student Union spread the word of the plan for the March on November 14th and over the weekend after the deadly shooting of a 17 year old student on the Ingraham campus. Thousands of angry students, parents and teachers came to protest, chant, yell, and march for the right for a school day uninterrupted by the sounds of gunfire or police sirens. The main message of the protest was that students are tired of fearing for their safety and lives at school. The asks are simple: gun control and mental health support in schools. The protest took place in front of city hall, both a strategic and symbolic location.
This kind of horrific violence has become normalized or at least somewhat expected. When people die, it’s a tragedy but one that I have become accustomed to. When I lived in San Francisco there were school shootings in both the middle schools and high schools across the city. From a very young age, like many other kids born in the United States, I was doing active shooter drills as young as kindergarten. When violence becomes part of your life you begin to slowly question it less and less. Every time I open my phone or turn on the news it seems like there has been another school shooting, another mass loss of life. Like JoJo B-P. ‘25 says in her article “School Should NOT be a Warzone” there have been over 100 school shootings in the year 2022. This estimated number of shootings does not account for shootings or massacres that take place in other locations such as grocery stores, malls, movie theaters, etc. This is an epidemic. This is not normal and this should not be accepted or even tolerated, ever. At the March you could feel the anger, pulsating through the air, through every chant every cry, students are fed up. Nevertheless, the student activists who organized this march have inspired us to keep fighting, even though it can feel like there’s no hope sometimes. To give up and demand change even when something has become normal to you, no matter how horrific, is the definition of bravery.
Pictured here are concerned parents that attended the march. Not only for their children but for the safety of all students.
It is estimated that over two thousand students attended the protest.
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Pictured here is a student who wished to remain anonymous. In their hand is a sign that reads “how many people need to die?” This message and others like it were common throughout the march. Although this shouldn’t be an issue concerning very young kids it has unfortunately become a cause that concerns kids of all ages, as we have witnessed shootings like those at Sandy Hook where children as young as 6 were injured or killed.
It is important to shed light on the injustice and disproportionate frequency of these acts of violence. While gun violence happens all over the world, the United States reacts to these acts of violence in a unique way. While other countries jump to create new gun laws, the US often stays silent. It is important for people who live here, such as the students at Northwest, to recognize that. I learned a lot from this march and encourage other Northwest students to continue fighting for what they believe in. Students should not be worried about fighting for gun control and adequate mental health services. Challenging what is now dangerously becoming the norm is always important, valued and supported in this community.
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