13.

School Shootings
The young people who experienced the recent school shooting in
Parkland, Florida, were born in or after 1999. In that year, two
students killed 13 classmates at Columbine High School in Colorado.
Since then, the United States has had six more of the 10
deadliest school shootings in its history.
Along with those events, there have been smaller, less publicized acts
of gun violence (bạ o lự c vì súng đạ n) on campuses. The Washington
Post newspaper found that, since 1999, more than 150,000 children
have experienced a shooting at their school. The Post reporters note
that those numbers are conservative (khiêm tố n). They do not include
suicides or accidents with guns that happen at school, or shootings
that happen after classes have ended.
In other words, today’s high school students have been raised at a
time when school shootings in the U.S. have become common.
The cumulative (tích lũy) effect of this gun-related school violence
may help explain the recent protests by young people. Since the
school shooting in Florida February 14, Parkland students and other
American teenagers have been publicly calling for stronger U.S. gun
laws. These activists have held demonstrations (biểu tình) and gone
onday strikes from school. They have spoken on television, posted on
social media, and met directly with President Trump and other
officials.
Last Wednesday, hundreds of high school-age students gathered
outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Juliet Cable was one of
them.
She said, "I think that this current fight for gun control (kiểm soát
súng) is a fight that students and teenagers and children are having
to fight. We're the ones who need to stand up and call attention to it
and change it."
America’s teenagers
Other mass shootings in recent U.S. history have inspired calls for
increased gun control measures. But the way many Parkland teenagers
are answering this month’s violence in Florida is different, say gun-
control activists.
Kristin Brown is the co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent
Gun Violence.
"We've certainly seen a groundswell (làn sóng lan nhanh) of anger rise
up following mass shootings (xả súng hàng loạ t) in the past, but
nothing like this in terms of the momentum or youth engagement,"
Brown said.
The young people’s efforts are consistent with what researchers have
been learning about today’s teenagers.
After the 2016 presidential election, the Associated Press and NORC
Center for Public Affairs Research asked 790 American teenagers
questions about their political views.
The researchers learned that, in general, U.S. teenagers are worried
about the country’s future, and they believe Americans do not agree
about basic values.
Amanda Lenhart was the senior research scientist at AP-NORC at the
time of the study. She told VOA that the teenagers in the study
sounded tired – even exhausted – of the country’s political conflict.
They expressed “deep weariness (sự mệt mỏ i) of the divided status
quo (hiện trạ ng),” Lenhart said.
At the same time, Lenhart said, teenagers hoped things could get
better. A majority had taken action on a political issue they cared
about. Teenagers who used social media were especially
politically engaged.
Today’s teenagers have, in her words, a “youthful energy that inspires
them to act,” Lenhart said. They want the future to be better, she
said, so they are going to stand up and make it better.
Fifteen-year-old Sofia Hidalgo, an activist (nhà hoạ t độ ng) from
Maryland, echoed that idea in a conversation with VOA.
“We got our voices out there in big publications so that people could
see change, and there is going to be a change in mentality. And we are
going to succeed in combating hate and fear with love and peace.”
Generation gun?
Abby Kiesa is with the Center for Information and Research on Civic
Learning and Engagement at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
She noted in an email to VOA that many of today’s teenagers are
insisting (khăng khăng) on being heard. At the same time, she said,
“We must continue to broaden (nớ i rộ ng) and diversify (đa dạ ng hóa)
the youth who have the encouragement and access to tell their
stories.”
Research scientist Amanda Lenhart made a similar point. Today’s
teenagers are among the most racially (chủ ng tộ c) and ethnically (sắ c
tộ c) diverse groups in U.S. history. Trying to talk about a “generation”
often hides important differences among people, she said.
But, Lenhart said, part of what forms the idea of a generation is
“living through big moments at the same time at a very similar life
stage.”
For today’s teenagers, the big moments that come to define their
generation may be their shared experience as students at a time when
schools can be scenes of violence.
As Parkland student Jaclyn Corin told the New Yorker magazine, “We
have grown up with this problem.”