It’s been a long two months for the kids at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. They watched 14 of their classmates and three of their teachers get gunned down on Valentine’s Day.
Most of these kids grew up having to deal with active shooter drills from elementary school onward, and seeing it happen in real time turned many of them into activists for gun control. In the last two months, kids like Emma Gonzalez, David and Lauren Hogg, Cameron Kasky, Sarah Chadwick, Delaney Tarr, and Jaclyn Corin have become household names.
The kids have had an extra week to heal, since they’ve been out on spring break, along with most of the nation. They returned to school Monday, and many of them took to Twitter to show what life is like for the mass shooting generation.
Just before going to bed on Sunday night, Chadwick revealed some of the new security measures that were going to greet her in the morning.
Tomorrow we will have to go through security check points and be given clear backpacks, my school is starting to feel like a prison.
— Sarah Chadwick (@Sarahchadwickk) April 2, 2018
The backpacks will be provided free of charge, and will be the only backpacks allowed on school property. While they can still bring sports equipment or band instruments in opaque bags or cases, those are subject to search.
Additionally, there were only four entry points available from 7 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. After 7:45, the only way in was through the front office. Extra Broward County deputies and state troopers will be on hand for security.
Tarr snapped a picture of what the entrance looked like as she arrived to start the last quarter of her senior year.
Nothing beats a morning walk through fenced lines with a bag check! Where am I, again? pic.twitter.com/6gDPs8zZ3Q
— Delaney Tarr (@delaneytarr) April 2, 2018
Tarr also showed off her new clear backpack.
Starting off the last quarter of senior year right, with a good ol’ violation of privacy! pic.twitter.com/Glf9C14dsq
— Delaney Tarr (@delaneytarr) April 2, 2018
But at least Tarr has only two months to deal with this. Lauren Hogg, a freshman, has to face this for three more years. And she’s not happy.
Today when I walk into school I will be greeted with armed police, wand detectors and clear backpacks.
Is this what my high school experience is going to be like? 3 more years of this…
Someday when my kids ask me about my high school experience what am I going to tell them?
— Lauren Hogg (@lauren_hoggs) April 2, 2018
In what has become typical fashion for these kids, they managed to find a way to use this to dunk on their critics again. Chadwick and some of her friends still have the “price tags” they wore at the March for Our Lives as a swipe at their home-state Senator, Marco Rubio. So they tied them around their new clear backpacks and used them to troll Rubio again.
.@marcorubio pic.twitter.com/yxuXCRGCiE
— Sarah Chadwick (@Sarahchadwickk) April 2, 2018
In case you missed it, they figured that they’re only worth $1.05 to Rubio–a figure they got from dividing the $3.3 million in NRA donations and advertising money Rubio has received over the years divided by the 3.1 million public and private school kids in Florida.
Can anyone look at these tweets and seriously say that these kids are “crisis actors” at worst, and unwitting mouthpieces for gun-hating libruls at best? And can anyone seriously say that these kids shouldn’t have walked out when they want to be able to come home from school alive?
If you want to know why these kids are marching and why they aren’t going away any time soon, this is why.
