June is a month of extremes: for seniors, the stress of exams and the exhilaration of graduation; for parents, the bittersweet pride of reaching the end of a long road together, then staying behind as grads set off on their own path.
Some will surely worry how to keep their kids safe from afar. And some know all too well how quickly the illusion of safety can be shattered.
Meadow Pollack, Nicholas Dworet, Carmen Schentrup and Joaquin Oliver should have graduated this month from Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school. Instead, they were remembered at a candlelight vigil for 17 students and teachers, as part of commencement ceremonies.
Since the Feb. 14 massacre, their parents have embarked on very different paths than they could have envisioned. In Joaquin’s memory, Manuel and Patricia Oliver founded the advocacy group Change the Ref, empowering young leaders to reduce the NRA’s influence in federal politics.
Andrew Pollack joined a state commission probing the shooting, but last week announced his resignation to conduct his own probe.
Mitchell and Annika Dworet and Phil Schentrup were among the Parkland parents who met last week with Bank of America, to ensure the bank will see through its commitment to stop backing companies that make military-style assault weapons for civilian use. Parkland students have effectively leveraged social media to expose NRA influence and pressure corporations into renouncing affiliations with assault weapons manufacturers.
The March for Our Lives movement, organized by Parkland survivors, marks a tipping point in public sentiment toward common-sense gun reform. Many of them support the Second Amendment. But, as student activist Cameron Kasky adds: “There are certain weapons that do not belong in the hands of citizens, and there are certain weapons that need to be regulated.”
Legislators pinning their re-election hopes on the NRA’s
