We all can agree that the most recent tragic event that has taken place within the United States was the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen students lost their lives in this shooting, and right now, discussions are abundant on actions to prevent another school shooting from happening again.

In the aftermath of the shooting, a decision across all schools in the U.S. were made: to spread the message to the U.S. Government into coming up with stricter gun laws to protect students. On March 14th, 2018, their plan would soon be put into action in what would be known as “The Walkout”. The plan was simple: most, if not all students and teachers within the district would walk out of their respective school for seventeen minutes and protest about the gun laws. They started an online trend: #Whatsyour17. Across the U.S., thousands of students have participated in the protests, and the discussion does not look like it would be dying down anytime soon.

In Pennsylvania, the Stroudsburg High School has decided to participate in the Walkout a different way. In fear of putting their students in danger, Jeffery Sodl, head principal of the school, has discussed an alternative approach with staff and student counsel.

Instead of walking out of the school on that date, many students have gathered inside their gymnasium and participated  in several activities or “stations” to evoke student spirit. One station, for instance, had students grab a yellow sheet of paper and meet seventeen new people, while also listing some new things about them. In another station, students were tasked with writing empowering, inspirational quotes that they will hang around the school for all to see.

The stations continued on for the entire period, the last activity was a firefighting squad coming to the school and releasing seventeen balloons in the air in honor of the seventeen victims who lost their lives on Valentine’s Day of this year. That was the end of the Stroudsburg High School’s take on the Walkout.

How far along in the future gun violence and debates concerning this issue will continue, we will never know. But what we do know is that people want an end to this, and soon. As a student of the Stroudsburg Area School District, I wholeheartedly agree with that statement.

We need better gun control in our schools. And this is the first step we as students must take to push that message further.