Listen in as students across Middle Tennessee discuss school shootings, gun violence
I made it my goal to listen to as many kids as possible as they shared about how gun violence affects them.
Over the course of several weeks, I sat down with students ages 8-18. We talked around a dinner table. On a patio covered in sidewalk chalk. On the front steps of a school. In the corner of an advocacy center. Over coffees and tacos and snacks. The Tennessean even set up a panel discussion and gave students the floor.
They had a lot to say.
Much of what the kids described was heartbreaking. They talked about gun violence claiming the lives of family members and friends or erupting around them. They described how they navigate sometimes dangerous neighborhoods around their homes or schools. They grappled with school shootings.
Even those who generally feel safe in their daily lives still think about how they'd escape during a shooting in places like school, the mall or church. They talked about what scares them, what frustrates them, what helps them and what gives them hope. They also chimed in on what they'd change if they had the chance. And while students have found support from friends and family, several said they feel their cries for change to lawmakers often fall on deaf ears.
Needless to say, this project left me with the sense that it's only the beginning of a conversation we'll have for years to come.
The project is the second part of a yearlong Tennessean project called "Class Disrupted." The first installment cross-examined a controversial Tennessee law that has led to hundreds of books being pulled from shelves in school libraries and classrooms. As schools find themselves in the crosshairs of contentious political and social debates, my Tennessean teammates and I will dig deep on the issues and what kids think about them.
Looking for the entire project? Here's a landing page that lays it all out. Want to listen in to our student panel discussion of gun violence and school shootings? Hit play on the video at the top of this story.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Listen in as Tennessee students discuss school shootings, gun violence
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