Corinna
Ari
Alissa
Emily
Maggie
CorinnaFor Corinna, a Montclair High School senior, the news of the Parkland shooting felt close to home. A girl she once met is from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and witnessed the violence in her own classroom. Many of Corinna’s classmates know MSD students through a shared summer camp. Corinna, coming from a family where important issues are regularly discussed around the dinner table, naturally brought her thoughts, feelings, and tears home. Fighting the urge to “flee into the woods and wait for everything to burn to the ground,” she chose to channel her anger and sadness into resolve and action. Within a few days, she had created a local Students Demand Action group with the help of a friend as well as initiated conversations in classrooms, sparking students to work together as activists. Corinna helped to organize the upcoming March 14th walkout at MHS. She even called into WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show to share her perspective.With her three years experience as a Center for Social Justice student at MHS, Corinna feels like she’s been training for this moment. As she prepares for the walkout -- screening student speakers, staying in touch with administration and the media, and making posters -- Corinna keeps in mind the Newark March For Our Lives on March 24 and plans to fundraise and support the Newark students.On Wednesday, March 14th, Corinna and classmates will walk out. They will rally, they will honor the victims with flowers and posters, and they will speak out. On Thursday the work continues.
AriAri, a senior, is helping to organize the National School Walkout on March 14th for Montclair High. He and other students have been in conversation with the administration throughout the planning and were asked not to make the walkout political. Ari says the walkout isn’t meant to be political but intends to honor all victims of gun violence. The Parkland shooting came at an emotional time for him, having just heard of a friend’s suicide -- the second friend to commit suicide in the past year. Knowing that nearly two thirds of gun deaths are suicides, Ari celebrates the portion of the Florida bill which helps keep guns out of the hands of those deemed a danger to themselves or others. He hopes that other states will follow suit. His advice to those interested in joining a movement is to read as much as you can and to educate yourself in order to be a good advocate. “Even though you're right to feel like something has to be done, if you don't know the facts and the history behind it you're just going to be shut down.”
AlissaAs a Montclair High senior, Alissa wants to leave highschool knowing that her younger cousins will be safe. She doesn’t want to worry if the next lockdown is real. Prompted by her mother to get past tears over the Parkland shooting and to act, Alissa prepared a speech for the National Walkout on March 14th. She spoke of her impatience with the slow pace of gun reform legislation. She called on her fellow students to join the movement of young and old, rich and poor. “By unifying ourselves, we, the people, become an unstoppable force. That is what makes a country strong! That is what makes a nation!”Activism runs deep in Alissa’s veins. She is the first vice president of the Youth Council of the Montclair Branch NAACP, a S.O.F.I.A member, and one of the leaders of The Million Man March in Montclair. Alissa credits her grandmother, her “pillar,” for her activism and for encouraging her to engage with the world. She is grateful to those who saw leadership qualities in her and pushed her to do better, in particular Ms. Malloy, a MHS registrar. “She called me a frog. I was hopping from this place to the next. My lily pad that I need to be on was in the middle and I used to always jump over it. She says I finally saw the lily pad and now I just need to leap for it.” Alissa turns 18 in April, is registered to vote, and looks forward to November. “Congress better watch out because – guess what – our voices WILL be heard.”
EmilyWhen Emily, a Montclair High senior, recalls the killing of Trayvon Martin and the start of the Black Lives Matter movement, she remembers worrying that her older brother would be similarly targeted. “I think that was when I really started to wake up...I became more worried because of what I looked like.” It was the Parkland students who encouraged Emily to take her first steps toward activism and led her to help organize the MHS walkout on March 14. Afterward, a teacher encouraged her further, “You guys did an amazing job with the walkout, but there are kids who have been trying to do things like this for years and they just haven't been getting attention from it.”Emily took that message to heart and brought it with her to St. James on the evening of March 24 where hundreds gathered to rally against gun violence. As a speaker, she pleaded with adults to listen. “Listen to the stories of children in Chicago that learn to tend bullet wounds. Listen to the children who Eric Garner left behind. Listen to the students who have been fighting for gun reform for years and have been silenced because of the color of their skin.”As Emily pushes forward in the movement, working to bridge communities, she responds to the rallying signs that state, “You are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.” Her message: we can’t do this alone – we need your support and activism.
MaggieIt was when she heard Emma González’ speech that Maggie of Montclair High felt the Parkland school shooting was different and not destined to be forgotten. Inspired by the Florida teens’ activism and their message to reject the normalization of gun violence, Maggie volunteered to speak at the MHS National School Walkout where she called on fellow students to bridge the gap between words and action. “Today isn't about walking out of our classrooms, but rather walking towards a better future.” She may only be a freshman but Maggie is no novice to leadership and activism. In 2017 she founded In Harmony Montclair, a youth group that aims to serve the community while also empowering teens – they organize and perform in benefit concerts for local charities.Her passion for performing led Maggie to write and direct for CODE RED: Playwrights Against Gun Violence. A series of short plays performed on March 23 at Luna Stage in West Orange, CODE RED gave attendees a platform to digest and discuss school shootings. “My scene is about a girl who's going to the psychologist because she lost her sister in a shooting and she is trying to figure out how to cope. I wanted to highlight some of the issues raised by kids from Parkland and other school shootings, but that have not received as much attention, such as how siblings are impacted by a shooting and how they recover.” The show will go on the road with another performance on April 29 at The West End Theatre in Manhattan, sponsored by Theatre 167.
March for our Lives, Newark, NJ 3/24/18
March for our Lives, Newark, NJ 3/24/18
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