A week after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, students all over the country have planned walk-outs, demonstrations, marches, town-halls, and rallies to speak for their silenced classmates. Their rightful desire to “Never Again” see another one of their friends, teachers, and collogues gunned down in a place of learning has been ridiculed with the criticism of adults who believe that young people must remain voiceless. 

The pinning of ‘kids’ versus adults is a toxic mentality in which suppresses the need for young voices in our country. I think it’s often that we forget that students like the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Shooting have been at the forefront of change in our country for decades. Whether it be the East Los Angeles Walkouts of the 1960s to the Black Lives Matter movement, social change would not be without the millions of young voices that shape the future of our nation, and we shouldn’t deny the reaction of the students across the country that are voicing their opinions, too. With their friends, teachers, and colleagues’ lives literally at stake, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they refuse to remain silent until they day they turn 18. 

This week, students apart of the “Never Again” movement traveled to Tallahassee to urge state legislators to reconsider their stance on current state gun laws. After opening the session with a prayer dedicated to the victims of the shooting, members of the House rejected a ban that would affect the sale of semiautomatic weapons and large capacity magazines. 

As survivors of the Florida shooting looked on and reacted appropriately as the state House supported the accessibility of the same weapon that killed their classmates and teachers, they became victims of a slew of online comments including being named as “whiners” and “cry-babies.” If these “cry-babies” can prevent their child from one day becoming another statistic in America’s saddening resume of mass shootings, I’m sure they may rethink their choice of words.  

Conservative author Dinesh D’Souza tweeted in response to the students’ reaction, “Adults 1, Kids 0.” Later, he tweeted, “Worst news since their parents told them to get summer jobs.”

Though D’Souza’s response to student activists a blatant attack on the victims of the shooting, I think it’s safe to assume that the worst news since their parents told them to get summer jobs was that they might not make it out of their school day alive due to an active shooter.  

The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas and others across country refuse to become another statistic. The cyclical nature of reacting to mass shootings, sending ‘thoughts and prayers’ and moving on without a care among America’s population is a blatant sign of disrespect in favor of one’s own personal agendas. Once America’s political leaders demonstrated that the murdering of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary wasn’t enough to put an end to mass shootings, it was a clear sign that youth across America would be forced to abandon their childhoods in a fight for their lives, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that they have.  

Young people across America will not be silenced by online hate comments, skeptics, and politicians, because they speak from experience. Growing up watching and even witnessing the worst mass shootings in history unfold, America’s youth has become the literal victims of the adults in power’s refusal to work together and make change happen. Denying those that are most affected by the reality of school shootings in our country the right to voice their opinion is a clear violation of America’s core values of democracy and free speech. Though you may disagree politically, they still deserve to be heard as the youth of today marks the beginning of change and revolution for tomorrow.  

 (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)