Western Pa. student forum: Concern for safety and committed to change

In the wake of a mass shooting at a Florida high school in February, students in Western Pennsylvania are joining their counterparts across the nation in standing up and speaking out.

They want to be heard, they want to feel safe, and they won't accept being marginalized because of their age.

“The Parkland students are being such leaders for us,” said Mara Van Thiel, 17, a junior at Deer Lakes High School. “They are showing us just because you're teenagers, it doesn't discount our opinion.”

Van Thiel was one of six Western Pennsylvania high school students who took part Monday evening in a conversation about guns and school safety hosted by Trib Total Media and the Valley News Dispatch at Penn State New Kensington.

A second forum is scheduled for tonight at Westmoreland County Community College in Youngwood.

Monday's discussion was moderated by Valley News Dispatch Editor Luis Fábregas.

Other panelists were Nathaniel Rosey and Gabriel McKernan, both 17 and juniors at St. Joseph High School; Jennifer Rakowski, 17, a junior at Deer Lakes High School; Kyal Massie, 18, a senior at Woodland Hills High School; and Rae Prunty, 17, a student at Winchester Thurston School.

“Clearly, we're here because the events of Feb. 14 in Florida have prompted an incredible response from young citizens like we've never seen before,” Fábregas said. “It's clear that you want to be heard. That's important because you are our future. You have the power to create change.”

Several of the panelists said they feel scared at school.

“I definitely feel like I'm scared when I go to school,” Van Thiel said. “The first week or two after the Parkland shooting, I couldn't sit down in class until I said, ‘What am I going to do if something happens right now? Where am I going to go? What's going to happen?'

“It's definitely a feeling of: if it happened there, when's it going to happen here?”

Prunty said it saddens him that school children have to be trained in how to react in such an emergency.

“It's sad that our school time for education is taken away by that,” he said.

Rakowski said she has a plan of how to protect herself for each of her classes.

“Whenever I sit in class, if I hear a noise, I get nervous,” she said. “School should be a place where we all feel safe and we can all just learn. Now it's a place of fear, almost.”

Attending a smaller school, Rosey and McKernan said they feel somewhat safer.

“Our teachers, they make it clear to us they will protect us,” McKernan said. “If the teachers were armed, or if we had security in our school, I'd feel safer.”

But Rosey said he knows “it is very possible for it to happen at any school.”

Students who have metal detectors at their schools said they make them feel safer, even if they are an inconvenience sometimes.

“It's so hard in the morning, but they definitely help,” Massie said. “I can't imagine not having them. You never know what someone could sneak in the building.”

Rosey said schools should have armed security, which he said would prevent deaths.

“In the end, we're going to be calling people (police) with guns,” he said.

Others disagreed.

“I don't agree with armed guards,” Van Thiel said. “There are certain things that students could do to disarm the guard. I don't think more guns is the answer.”

“The money and time used to train teachers with carrying a gun could be used to helping improve education,” Massie said. “At Woodland Hills, we have lost so many students this year to gun violence.

“Arming teachers would not benefit us — that would be stressful. Kids would just feel on edge.”

Arming teachers “would be like fighting fire with fire,” Rakowski said.

“That doesn't really solve the situation,” she said. “Even if they are trained, there's still the chance of accidents. There could be the chance a student could get a hold of the gun.”

Massie and Prunty said they are going to the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., this weekend.

“Parkland — they are just the voice for all of us. We all agree with them,” Massie said. “They just started this. They're going to be there.

“It's going to be so empowering,” she said. “There's going to be so many students just fighting because we want these leaders to hear us. We want them to know that we don't feel safe.”

Van Thiel said she doesn't feel lawmakers are doing enough to keep students safe.

“Once they get into office, it seems like they don't really listen to the people who voted for them — and they don't listen to the people who didn't vote for them,” she said. “In my eyes, the mark of a leader is someone who inspires everyone, not just a chosen few.”

Massie said the march is just the start.

“Parkland kind of sparked something in all the youth,” she said. “After this march, I feel like we're not going to take it anymore. This march is just the first thing that's going to show our leaders or lawmakers that we're not going to stop until we feel safe, until you make regulations, until you do something.”

Van Thiel said it's the start of something bigger than themselves. She's looking into doing voter registration drives at her school. “Voting is such an important thing,” she said. “It has such a huge impact. So many people are not aware of the change they can incite.”

Brian C. Rittmeyer is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-226-4701, brittmeyer@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BCRittmeyer.