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Bay Area Students Call for Change at Vigil for Florida Shooting Victims

MILL VALLEY (KPIX) -- On the opposite side of the country about 3,000 miles from Parkland, students at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley held a vigil for their fallen Florida peers on Thursday night.

Students said they understand that the next shooting could happen anywhere unless they can somehow push elected officials to put restrictions on certain kinds of guns. They say they want the Florida shooting to inspire their classmates to vote and to force change.

Here's what some of them had to say.

Tamalpais High senior Elissa Asch:
"When you see this cycle of inaction and it seems hopeless well, all there is left is hope, right?"

Tamalpais High senior Sawyer Shine:
"I want to just show people that we're not going to pretend that it isn't happening. Our goal tonight is to show those people in Florida that this really matters to us and we're willing to do anything."

Some of the students' counterparts in Florida who just survived the shooting also showed a remarkable amount of maturity as they rejected the do-nothing approach of their elders.

Seventeen-year-old David Hogg hid in a closet with his fellow students as the gunman went on his shooting spree. Hogg is now pleading for someone -- anyone -- to do something about school shootings.

"We can say, 'yes, we're going to do all these things, thoughts and prayers' ... What we need more than that is action. Please! This is the 18th one this year! That's unacceptable. We're children! You guys are, like, the adults. You need to take some action and play a role ... work together ... over your politics and get something done. Talk to a congressman. Talk to people and don't stop fighting. Because children will continue to die if we don't take a stand now."

 

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