Jackson Heights Students Demand Gun Safety Laws At Rally

JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS – Students at Jackson Heights' Renaissance Charter School were two days shy of spring break when a 19-year-old gunman walked into a high school like theirs and opened fire, killing 17 and wounding 17 more.

That gunman, Nikolas Cruz, and the school he shot up, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, may have been 1,300 miles away in Parkland, Florida, but the Queens students couldn't shake the thought that the nightmare could've happened in their hallways.

Something needed to change, they decided. If lawmakers wouldn't do it, they would.

Less than a month later, those students packed Renaissance's auditorium on Monday in bright orange "March For Our Lives" T-shirts for a rally they'd organized to call for more gun safety laws.

Tyler Young, a junior at the charter school, told Patch the rally with state and local politicians offered him and other students an outlet to express the fear, anger and confusion they've grappled with since the Feb. 14 shooting.

"All of us feel outraged about the shooting," Young said. "We wanted them (politicians) to know that we want change and we want it now."

The high schoolers began planning the rally over their spring break, inspired by Marjory Stoneman students who'd managed to find their voices to demand change just days after the shooting.

Ali Rosow, the school's social worker, told Patch she was on vacation in the Caribbean when texts from fired-up students began rolling in.

"I told them, 'whatever you want to do, I'll support you,'" Rosow said. "They made the T-shirts, and they're the one's really taking the lead on this."

Rosow and the high schoolers soon got to work meeting with Renaissance's student government and other leadership organizations to gauge interest, and the project took off. Nearly 40 of the school's roughly 250 high schoolers sat on a leadership team to organize Tuesday's rally and participate in nationwide walkouts and gun safety protests in the months ahead.

U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley (D-New York) was among community leaders who showed up to the school on Tuesday to hear students' concerns and stand with them in demanding gun safety laws follow the Parkland tragedy.

Among those students was junior Tylir Mortan, who feels lawmakers have essentially put students' safety on the backburner by refusing to take action after the latest high school shooting.

"I think how they’ve been putting us off is really not okay," Mortan said. "If something happens and you know it’s wrong, you should do something about it."

He's particularly incensed by politicians who refused to talk about gun control in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.

"I personally feel like them saying it's too soon is an insult to us," he said. "It's like (they're saying) 'Oh, they'll be alright. They'll forget about it.' No, we won't forget about this."

Tenzin Damdul, a sophmore at the high school, explained the students made the

"March For Our Lives" T-shirts as a constant reminder of where they stand. The T-Shirts support students who plan to descend on Washington D.C. in a rally for more gun control laws on March 24.

"We tried to make these so that whether we’re walking across the street or through the hallways, people know that we support what’s happening and we’re going to speak up," Damdul said.

Renaissance is also among thousands of schools participating in "Enough" a global school walkout on Wednesday to protest Congress' refusal to act on gun safety as deadly mass shootings continue to happen across the country.

"Every week, there’s been a shooting at a different place, which is not okay," Mortan said. "I don't want to be walking to school saying, man I hope nobody’s going to come in and shoot up the place. I want to walk into school thinking, ‘Nice I’m here,’ and I can get an education and learn."

It's the attitude Rosow has come to expect from her students, which is why, two weeks later, she wasn't at all surprised to find herself standing in the midst of a rally organized entirely by them.

"It's impressive, but I expect it from them," she said. "That's the type of students they are."

Lead photo by Danielle Woodward/ Patch.