Lake Forest High School students want to see their school board do anything it can to decrease gun violence, including efforts to raise awareness of how guns can be securely stored in homes where they might otherwise be accessed by children.
After advocating for the District 115 board to pass a safe gun storage resolution in March, and a week after staging a school walkout on April 5, members of Lake Forest and Lake Bluff Students Demand Action addressed the board on Tuesday night.
“The safety and security shares services and the District 115 referenda … dedicated 6.4% of the $105.7 million in funding safety and security measures, including a rapid lockdown system, which is considered a reactive safety measure,” junior Maya Taha said. “In order to comprehensively address the threat of firearm violence in our schools, we must also prioritize safety policies like the secure storage resolution shared with the board in March.”
Taha, who was joined by fellow members of the area’s Students Demand Action group, emphasized the urgency to act proactively as many students live in constant fear of gun violence in school, and in general.
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Lake Forest and Lake Bluff high schoolers organized the April 5 walkout in response to an epidemic of mass shootings nationwide, but the protest also was in solidarity with Highland Park students who locked down for more than an hour the day before after a student brought a gun to school.
While school boards cannot pass laws, Taha and her peers want to see District 115 adopt a resolution that would see the school agree to more regular communications about safe gun storage, as well as about situations affecting school security and safety when they arise.
“We felt (on April 4) once again like there was no central communication to LFHS students and families,” she said. “After bullets were found in our own library (in October), we all appreciated the administration’s recommitment to communication about safety and security. However, we believe we should have received emails about our neighbors in Highland Park due to its close proximity.”
Taha pointed out that other schools in the area, such as Deerfield High School and other elementary schools in the Highland Park area, and nearby Cherokee Elementary in District 67, locked down on April 4 and then organized early releases that day.
“We want this (communication) to be consistent, as gun violence clearly persists in our neighboring communities,” she said. “Uncertainty breeds fear and amplified fear, which is why we believe communication to be crucial and creating a safer community.”
Taha said that, since drafting the resolution for the board, there have been more than 60 mass shootings in the United States.
“We’re desensitized to gun violence,” she said. “Sometimes this can feel like we’re stuck in cyclical violence, but we believe things can change.”
Board President Jenny Zinser called the other students up to join Taha at the podium after her comment, then told them, their “voices were heard” in March and once again by the board, which intends to act on their request.
“We respect how you’re feeling,” she said. “We respect that the world right now feels really scary and unsafe. The board has received emails from parents in the community letting us know that they feel scared and unsafe.”
Zinser got emotional as she then recounted being in Nashville, where her daughter is a teacher, on the day of the Covenant School mass shooting last month.
“Watching my daughter’s reaction and being in Nashville, where the entire city was reacting, was powerful, let me tell you,” she said.
Zinser emphasized that the, “last thing we want you students worrying about is whether you’re safe inside of our building,” and encouraged the students to continue to engage their local lawmakers, area police departments and other entities about how they too can do more to ensure local guns are stored safely and people are aware of the danger guns can pose.
“Because we are a school board that reps a little over 1,400 students, we are a small voice in this mission that you are on,” she said.
Taha also encouraged the board to move the public comment portion of the meeting closer to the beginning of the night the next time there are students signed up for public comment on a weeknight.
Because of SAT testing the next morning, Taha said, some students who attended the meeting had to leave before the public comment period for items not on the agenda, which came up more than 90 minutes into the meeting.
Zinser said she wanted to clarify that because the students’ concerns were not on the agenda, board policy dictates when their comments can take place during the meeting.
She said she is hopeful the board will be able to vote on the resolution in May.
“When the laws aren’t working to keep people safe, then people have to step forward and make their voices heard,” board member Dewey Winebrenner told the students. “So we’re super grateful for you guys, for kind of giving us a kick in the rear end. We needed it, and we hope you keep going.”