12th Grade Social Justice Writing Contest Winner

by Jessica Raskauskas

None of us here have ever known what it was like to go to school in complete safety: Columbine was in 1999. Think about that for a second– as a senior, in my twelve years of school, I have never known an education system that did not have to prepare me for what I would have to do to stay alive if someone with an AR-15 walked in through that door right now. I have been lucky enough to only have had to go through four genuine lockdowns in my life, none more severe than for a paintball gun in the next door parking lot, mistaken for an actual gun. In 1994, there was a ban passed on assault-style weapons. Over the next ten years, 89 people died at the barrel of that style of weapon. The ban expired in 2004, and has not been reinstated. 14 years later, 300 people have died in mass shootings. That is nearly a 300% increase. And 17 people were just added to that list. There are fourteen students our age, and three of their teachers, whose school went into lockdown and they did not live to see it lifted. One month ago today, 17 students and teachers walked into school, a place where they’re supposed to be safe and educated, and never walked out. If you would, please raise your hand if you are 14. Alyssa Alhadeff was 14 years old and was killed by an assault weapon at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL exactly one month ago today. Martin Duque Anguiano was also 14. So were Jaime Guttenberg, Cara Loughran, Gina Montalto, Alaina Petty and Alex Schachter. Again, if you would, please raise your hand if you are 15. Peter Wang and Luke Hoyer were 15 years old when their lives were taken by a former upperclassman they likely didn’t even know, and the assault weapon he carried into their school. Please raise your hand if you are 16. Carmen Schentrup was 16 when she died last month. Please raise your hand if you are 17 or 18. Nicholas Dworet, Joaquin Oliver and Helena Ramsay were 17, and Meadow Pollack was 18, taken from this earth less than four months before they could graduate high school and begin the rest of their lives. They no longer have a “rest of their lives” to begin. Chris Hixon was a 49 year old athletic director, Aaron Feis was a 37 year old assistant football coach, and Scott Beigel was a 35 year old geography teacher. 17 families lost their loved ones on a day supposed to be surrounded by love and peace; a day that came to be shrouded in evil and violence. On Valentine’s Day here, I walked around and handed out NHS roses to the lucky people whose friends and partners had bought them for them. Marjory Stoneman Douglas students and teachers watched their classmates and students collapse at the sound of gunfire.

My name is Jessica Raskauskas. I’m seventeen years old and a vocal major. Next year I’ll be going to Rutgers- New Brunswick as a biomedical engineering major with a vocal performance minor. I am thankful for every day that I have with the people around me because maybe I won’t get to New Brunswick. Maybe my best friends won’t get to Fairleigh Dickinson to live their dreams. Maybe the girl who sits behind me in AP calc won’t walk with us at graduation. I wonder if that’s a thought that the students at MSD ever had. I wonder if it’s a thought Senator Ted Cruz ever had. Or United States Representative French Hill.

On March 14, 2018, across the world, students walked out of their classrooms for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 lives lost in Florida. Some faced suspension and in extreme cases, even expulsion. But still walked out. Because as much as Hill and Cruz insist that it’s a constitutional right to be able to buy an assault weapon before you can buy alcohol, it is also a constitutional right to protest. It is a constitutional right to feel safe in my school. I am so proud to know that the people I have come to love here united on Knights Road in protest and in respect of the lives lost while I was away. We in here are somewhere between millennials and GenZ. We are the generation of change. The fact that I’m standing here in front of you is indicative of change. A high school is no place for assault weapons. Thoughts and prayers are not enough. They have never been enough. Thoughts and prayers are not going to stop someone from opening fire in a school, or a concert, or a graduation. Or a Social Justice Day. Actions will. We are the generation that will take action. I refuse to let Stoneman Douglas become another statistic. Or another sob story. The Parkland shooting happened a while ago, at this point. Do not let the conversation end. We understand Trump-age politics because we understand social media. So post about today. Hashtag your Social Justice Day photos with #NeverAgain. Be part of the movement. You have a voice. So use it.