#MarchForOurLives: Los Angeles

Do any other american high schoolers have intense survivor’s guilt and trauma with school shootings even though they weren’t at your school?

Like. A laser tag place opened geared towards teenagers and it got no business, we tried to enjoy it but when someone pointed a laser machine gun at me and I instinctively dropped behind the nearest wall and reached to turn off my phone I cried, I wasn’t the only one. The announcements system turns on at an unexpected time and everyone holds their breath until they say something besides “locks, lights, out of sight,” nobody even jokingly pops chip bags anymore, a door slammed really loud during a class change and everyone dropped and ran. Everyone cries during drills, even the toughest ranch kids. Every drill comes with a full day of teachers crying and telling us that they love us all so much and will die for us, and every kid in every class looking around wondering who would I die for? Who would die for me? You walk to the bathroom and wonder every second if it happens right now, where will I go? You test supply closet doors to see which ones are unlocked, you memorize which furniture in the teachers’ lounge your English teacher says is light enough to barricade a door with. The fire alarm goes off and nobody moves, instead you wait for gunshots—it a trap? You stand with a group of freshmen and realize that you’re the oldest, you know you’ll have to die for them. You forget your ID tag and worry that now the police won’t be able to tell your parents if you’re safe, or not safe. Your stats teacher has a baseball bat by the door, your math teacher keeps a stapler under each desk to throw, your drama teacher asks who will be willing to stand by the non-locking door with the Shakespearean swords. Your yearbook teacher tells you don’t worry about breaking a camera because you heard about the kids who died holding them. You don’t use the bathroom during classes because you don’t want to be the only target to shoot at. You keep your phone on silent 24/7 because you worry the one time you forget will be when you get your whole US History class killed. You have a snap saved with your class schedule and school and full name to send in an instant to your internet friends so they know if you were on that wing, you have a note saved with the things you want your mom to know and the things you’re sorry for. At the age of 12 I was told I needed to know who I would die for and that it was okay if it was nobody, that was my decision to make. School shootings control us more than adults and non-Americans could possibly imagine and nobody moves to change anything unless we’re actively screaming for it. Have you considered we’re too scared?

[Image: a tweet from Jennifer Wright (@JenAshleyWright). Text reads: “If kids are worried about getting suspended for protesting gun violence and ruining their college prospects I PROMISE YOU “Why I Was Suspended For Fighting the NRA” is a better college admission essay topic than “How Soccer Made Me a Team Player.”]

Memes are all very good, but to get the assholes out, you have to VOTE.

hey my friend is in a legal crisis rn regarding being undocumented in the past and being abused right now can someone who knows us / california law well pls dm me

please i need help within the next 10 minutes

update 7/26/18 2:58 am pst - i have more time because her abusive mother has cooled off but i am looking for more long term solutions for her. this situation is rather complicated and i need help with some of the technicalities involved in it. pls continue to reblog this and ty

reblog if you want to participate in the school walkout on April 20 to fight gun violence

[Image description: Yolanda Renee King wearing a white jacket and scarf, with an orange ribbon pinned to her chest. She holds a microphone just below her mouth, and smiles toward an audience somewhere behind the camera. Next to her, overlaid over the image in all caps, are the words “‘Spread the word. Have you heard? All across the nation. We are going to be a great generation.’ Yolanda Renee King, Granddaughter of Coretta Scott King & Martin Luther King Jr.” Below that is the Everytown logo: three broken lines and the words “Everytown - For Gun Safety.”]

And just like in the novels, grown men and women are going out of their way to destroy her. Support our hero.

Okay so apparently one of the things that the whole March For Lives things wants to do is let cops have access to mental health records right away no questions asked and like uh no fuck off fuck you and fuck anyone that supports that

nothing could possibly go wrong

is the march for life the thing for ‘ending gun violence(except the state yknow)’?

This is ridiclous because one of the biggest demographics harmed by police brutality are disabled people, many times the police are fully aware of their mental or neurological disability and continue to abuse them anyway because they can! Like holy shit this is a terrible idea

It’s moments like this that I’m reminded that these are children who lack nuance who are being guided by adults who also lack nuance and/or purposefully want to shoehorn dangerous shit like this into the “progress” being made.

What confuses me is that this does NOT sound like what the kids wanted at the march. Some of the kids were openly saying they felt like criminals in their schools because of heightened police in their areas.

And it really doesn’t ring true to what I’ve seen of them. Which begs the question - who’s actually pushing for this by piggybacking off these kids to do it?

Thanks for the clarification/correction 

Thank you! I was concerned because these posts are floating about on blogs and it didn’t seem right in my mind. There was no way these kids could have wanted it. These kids have been actively telling us they’re using their own privilege to get this far, why would they take a sudden turn? I was worried this was another ploy to vilify them.