Therese Gachnauer, center, a 18 year old senior from Chiles High School and Kwane Gatlin, right, a 19 year old senior from Lincoln High School, both in Tallahassee, join fellow students protesting gun violence on the steps of the old Florida Capitol in Tallahassee on Wednesday.(AP Photo/Mark Wallheiser)Jaw set and eyes blazing, Marjory Stoneman Douglas senior Ryan Deitsch asked Florida Sen. Marco Rubio this week why he and other students “have to march on Washington just to save innocent lives.”
In other words, senator, why are high school children – children who’ve had a lifetime of active-shooter drills – having to be the grown-ups, the leaders, the purveyors of common-sense on gun laws.
Deitsch survived the Parkland, Fla., school shooting that left 17 dead, and it marked the second time Deitsch himself had to hide in his school from a gunman.
“These drills, code reds, active shooter – they’ve been a part of my life as long as I can remember,” he said, adding that in the fifth grade, he hid in a bathroom with his teacher and 20 classmates for three hours after a shooter came to his town.
“Now seven years later, I’m in a closet with 19 other kids, waiting, fearing for my own life. Now we’d like to know, why do we have to be the ones to do this to march on Washington. “