Lee County student forum: new gun law good start; more work needed to make schools safe

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A round table of Lee County high school students gathered by The News-Press in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has them answering, 'Do you feel safe in your school'. Andrea Melendez/news-press.com

They are scared at their schools, more than they were before Parkland.

Loud noises in hallways cause shudders. Nooks and crannies are scouted as places to hide. Fire drills might not be drills.

As a result, demands for greater safety – which to most means keeping guns out of teachers’ hands, strengthening gun control laws, adding more resource officers and making meaningful investments in counseling and mental health services in schools and communities – is only just beginning.

That’s according to a roundtable of Lee County high school students gathered by The News-Press Tuesday almost one month after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“Not everybody is politically united. That’s a simple fact,” said Cape Coral High School student Maxwell Slafer.

“However, I do believe our generation believes in common sense gun reform. The majority of the students say enough is enough, and now is the time for change.”

March 14: South Fort Myers High students hold vigil in honor of Parkland victims

March 14: Lee County students mostly sit out walkout following discipline threats

March 12: Parkland: Lee schools unclear on plans for March 14 nationwide walkout

Feb. 21: Lee County high school students walk out to support Parkland shooting victims

A new law signed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Friday does well to address gun control but is misguided in its proposal to arm teachers under certain conditions, students said.

“Teachers don’t even want the guns,” said Lehigh Senior High student Gianna Geary. “I’ve had multiple conversations with some teachers. Not one of them said they would feel comfortable carrying a gun in school. None of the students want teachers to carry guns in school.”

Slafer said Lee County School District Superintendent Greg Adkins pledged at a school safety discussion two weeks ago not to permit staff or JROTC members to carry guns in schools.

“All of those are great. But it shouldn’t end there,” Geary said of the new law’s gun restrictions. “There’s more work to do. We’re not going to stop.”

More: Lehigh man destroys semi-automatic rifle on live video in solidarity with Parkland 

More: Parkland teens take center stage in fight and Rep. Rooney town hall talk

Tuesday’s roundtable was coordinated with the Lee County School District, Foundation for Lee County Public Schools and Valerie’s House, a charity that helps children and families cope with deaths.

Along with practical concerns over teachers attempting to defend schools against a shooter, the roundtable also said the strain and demands teachers already face only makes the introduction of more guns to schools even more concerning.

“Just because you train them doesn’t mean it will work out,” said Jana Glover, also a Lehigh Senior student. “There’s so many issues that could go wrong.”

“Teachers are people, too. Anything can happen,” said North Fort Myers High student Brooke Castner. “Anybody can have a mental illness.”

“I think that’s the point,” Slafer said. “These threats are so random. The idea of arming teachers is that our schools should be on-ready at all times. If you believe in that philosophy, you really should just pay more money to armed school officers rather than have personnel who aren’t trained in weapons.

“What if there is an altercation between a student and a teacher, and the student grabs the gun? Or if a student finds out that a teacher has a gun and wants to be a threat to the school. There’s now a gun in the school for him to use for that threat.

“Having more guns in schools that aren’t secured by a police officer adds to the danger. It doesn’t minimize it. If they want more guns in schools, they should hire police officers.”

Roundtable participants acknowledged that such views are not universal with students.

During a nationwide school walkout on Feb. 21 – one week after the Parkland shooting that killed 17 and injured 16 – some students in Lee County schools did not participate, roundtable members said.

Some students want to arm teachers, and some were openly hostile to the walkout.

“It was very sad to see kids were just joking about it,” Castner said. “I guess they can’t see that it could have been them. It could have been their best friend.”

But the proximity to Parkland and visceral nature of the shooting thanks to social media left an imprint that students said won’t fade for many.

“They want us to forget,” Glover said in a shared criticism of apathy or resistance among some adults, including politicans. “They say, ‘Oh, we’re just kids. They’ll be on to the next (thing) in another week.’

“That was what made the difference this time. People above us, they’re not living how we’re living today. They see us and hear us. But they’re not hearing us. No, we’re not just students. Most of us are about to graduate. We’re about to be the ones voting.”

Along with stronger gun laws, students said greater investments must be made in counseling and mental health services. That includes for substance abuse issues and crisis care inside and outside of schools, care which they said is woefully insufficient.

Multiple roundtable participants detailed personal stories being impacted by suicides or suicide attempts among family, friends and even themselves.

“Not every lonely kid that you see is depressed and anxious,” said South Fort Myers High student Keegan Myers. “You can never really say that this happy, smiley person with a bunch of friends is depressed. You never know what is going on internally.”

“None of us here are mental health professionals,” Slafer said. “It’s a dangerous line to walk when we start to suspect everybody with mental illness to be up to something.

“Every single one of us knows the stress that our guidance counselors are under. They do not have enough resources. They do not have enough numbers. At my school we have four guidance counselors and our student population exceeds 1,000.”

A second nationwide school walkout was scheduled for Wednesday, at 10 a.m. at most schools, exactly one month after the Parkland shooting.

But given what students felt was the success of the first walkout honoring the Parkland victims and in raising awareness to the need for greater gun safety, some pointed forward to another national event, March for Our Lives, on March 24, a Saturday.

Local efforts are being coordinated at Centennial Park in downtown Fort Myers.

“Our walkouts are important,” Slafer said. “But it's this march that’s most important, that’s going to gather national attention. It’s happening on a Saturday. Our opponents can no longer use the argument that we just want to skip class. It’s really going to show numbers for our movement.”

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Students formed a large heart on the field and the names of the 17 shooting victims from Stoneman Douglas High School were read. Mark Bickel/news-press.com