Hundreds of Northwestern University students streamed into Deering Meadow on the university campus Wednesday, joining the national wave of school walkouts as young people around the country called attention to gun violence – especially at schools and other would-be havens.
“Being murdered when you’re trying to get an education has become a real fear in this country, the only developed country where this regularly happens,” Northwestern freshman Valen-Marie Santos said, addressing the crowd through a megaphone. “We stand up today because we can’t let this country get used to these kinds of massacres. We can’t let our country be desensitized to this kind of violence.”
Two groups of students marched through campus holding signs and chanting “No more silence, end gun violence” before converging on the field. There, they heard speeches by NU students from Florida and other leaders demanding action from federal lawmakers.
Santos was one of eight NU students from Florida who formed a support group on Facebook after Feb. 14, the day a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. opened fire on the school and killed 17 students and staff.
When the university students learned of the national event being planned for Wednesday, which marked one month since the rampage, they joined members of the student group UNICEF NU and registered their own walkout at Northwestern, they said.
In addition to the speeches, the college students observed a moment of silence in memory of the Parkland school victims.
University President Morton Schapiro and Evanston Mayor Stephen Hagerty attended, both calling the emerging generation of young adults to action.
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“Our country needs your leadership, we need your generation, elected officials need to hear from you,” Hagerty told the gathering. “We need you to use social media, marketing, your persuasion, your youthful optimism, and the technical skills you are learning here at Northwestern and elsewhere to help us solve this absurd problem.”
Northwestern sophomore Matthew Casler, who grew up in Orlando, called on students to write letters to their elected representatives back home to demand that they throw their support behind gun control legislation.
“When democracy does not respond, we will make it respond,” Casler said. “When they don’t listen to our cries, they will read our words and understand that they have hurt each and every one of our communities. And they need to know that none of us are going to be next, because none of us are going to let them let that happen.”
After the rally, student volunteers with UNICEF NU handed out information that included gun death statistics, encouraging their peers to write letters to their local congressmen. The volunteers took the completed letters and prepared them to be mailed to congressional leaders’ Washington offices.
The letter-writing campaign is part an effort to keep gun safety on the minds of busy students, organizer Stephanie Bernstein said.
Bernstein, who grew up in Plantation, Fla., remembers visiting Stoneman Douglas for debate competitions, she said. She recognized the tiled walls in the background of videos that rocketed through social media in the shooting’s aftermath, showing students sprinting away from gunfire.
“Overall this outpouring of love and support is amazing, and it leaves a warm feeling, but I don’t want this to fall off people’s minds. I want this to be the last one,” Bernstein said. “Because it hit close to home for me, and I don’t want to wait until it hits close to other people in my life. I don’t want other people’s hometowns showing up in CNN’s headlines.”
Alex Nitkin is a freelancer.