Expressing their free speech rights and the failure of social media
by Garrick Moritz, Garretson Gazette Editor
School shootings and mass shootings have continued since infamous Columbine shootings 19 years ago on April 20, 1999. It’s a sad tale we’ve heard too many times since then.
The most recent mass school shooting happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and killed 17 students and staff. These murders have set off a nation-wide movement, titled “Never Again” started by Parkland student and survivor, David Hogg. Their goal is for the leaders of our country to enact stronger background checks and weapons laws. The group has created and advocated for a “March for our Lives” on March 24 in Washington, D.C. and other locations throughout the country. Another national walkout is likewise being planned for the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting.
Garretson too, made national headlines, and not in a good way this past week, after the Argus Leader ran a front page story about a student about a “canceled” student protest regarding anti-gun violence. The article by Megan Raposa of the Argus Leader, however, didn’t get into the nuances of the situation, and the two principal Garretson High School students who were quoted were not exactly pleased with the direction it took.
“That article was skewed,” said GHS senior Sylvia Larson, who is also an intern journalist here at the Gazette. “My quote was from before the final decision to cancel the walkout went through, so a little out of context. The Associated Press story that followed, printed in the Star Tribune, New York Times and Washington Post, and where ever else it was syndicated, was a little better, but not by much.”
“Yeah, aside from raising awareness of this issue, that article didn’t do us or Garretson any favors,” said GHS Senior Peyton Sage. “What I really didn’t like about it was the big picture of Guy Johnson they put on the internet with the story, like it was his fault. It wasn’t. Here is how it went down. Sylvia and I went to Mr. Johnson and told him that this is what we were planning to do. He was very clear that as the school administrator he couldn’t condone doing this protest, but that personally he had nothing but respect for us expressing our rights to free speech as legal adults, which we are. He warned us that if school rules were broken we’d have to suffer the consequences, but that he would do everything in his power to mitigate or minimize those consequences. I wanted to hug him.”
“Yeah, Mr. Johnson is awesome,” said Larson. “We felt nothing but support from him.”
The young ladies say, though, that High School Principal Chris Long was less supportive of the idea.
“It was clear he was not happy about this at all,” said Sage.
“I kind of feel like he made this about the school and himself, more than about students expressing their opinions through protest,” said Larson.
But negotiations continued. They had several more meetings with Long and Johnson, and progress was made.
“I didn’t like the compromise,” said Larson. “As I said I thought it was a cop out, and that’s what the Argus quoted, but you know what, I could live with it. That’s what compromise is, nobody gets everything they want. Doing something was better than nothing.”
“We worked with Mr. Long and Mr. Johnson to find a compromise that everyone could live with,” Sage said. “And it was a compromise where none of the students who joined in the demonstration would be penalized for it. It’s not very much time, but it had meaning, seventeen minutes out of the day. Seventeen moments of silence to honor victims of the Florida shootings, there were lots of great ideas and things we thought of together that would also be a part of it, including a T-Shirt drive where the proceeds of the sale of which would go to the victims funds of the families in Florida, and I only wish it could have gone that way.”
Thus enters the elephant in the room, social media. The young ladies posted some details of this to Facebook and it went south fast. For every positive comment of support, or even fairly made argument against; there was trolling to an extreme ratio.
“It wasn’t cool, to say the least,” said Larson. “They insulted us and our parents. They talked down to us, because we were “just kids”.”
Some of the comments that the young ladies found most offensive, aside from the outright profanities, were comments that they had no stake in this issue, that they were celebrating Adolph Hitler’s Birthday, or that they were going to protest on 4/20 and enjoy some recreational marijuana.
“First of all, as to us having no stake or place in the debate on this issue, well how about the right to go to school every day and not be shot by a crazy person with an AR-15! Don’t you think students in American schools have that right?” said Larson. “Wasn’t what happened down in Harrisburg not long ago, or those recent arrests down in Brandon, a close enough call for you people.”
“Yeah, I kind of think that if the shootings had happened in Garretson South Dakota, rather than down in Florida, the conversation would have been totally different. As to the Hitler’s birthday thing, it is also absolutely ridiculous,” said Sage. “A basic Google search will reveal why the two students who planned the Columbine shooting chose that day, because they wanted to be Nazis, it’s pretty evil. As to us wanting to walk out of school to light up a spliff, please, illegal and ridiculous. It would never happen.”
And the real consequence of the repugnancy of these posts was that the compromise, tenuous and in its infancy, was shattered, meaning that if students do want to protest that day, they’ll be subject to disciplinary action.
Though Sage and Larson disagree with the cancelation of the event, they also were quick to come to the defense of Mr. Long.
“I don’t think he should have canceled it and I don’t agree with it, but at the same time he did apologize, and said some very nice things in an open letter to the community they posted on the school website,” said Sage.
“Yeah, Mr. Long apologized!” said Larson. “The Argus and AP story took quotes from him in that letter, but they took them all out of context, which was unfair to Mr. Long.”
Two quotes they should have used perhaps were “…they too are also owed an apology. They won’t get it from most, but they’ll get it from me. It was clear that they wanted a voice, a chance to be heard. They were willing to do it the right way, but they didn’t get the chance.” & “I’m proud of you, I’m proud of your efforts and I’m proud that you were willing to take that chance. You have my respect.”
One other criticism these young ladies received was, what is it exactly that they stood for?
“So often when you talk about gun control the conversation just devolves,” said Larson. “So you want to take our guns away is the first thing somebody says… No! We’re not coming to your house to take your guns away! What we want is a sensible system where people who are mentally ill or unstable, don’t get access to firearms. Better background checks that find these potential shooters before they buy a gun.”
One idea brought forward during this interview was the reinstatement of several of the provisions of the Brady Bill that have been allowed to expire. For those who may not recall, the Brady Bill was a bi-partisan supported bill that was made law after the attempted assassination of President Ronald Regan by a delusional psychopath.
“I know this is a very complicated issue,” said Sage. “But there has to be something that our leaders can do, rather than just nothing again and again and again. That’s why we’re protesting. In South Dakota at least, there is more involved in getting our drivers license than buying an AR-15, and we’re both 18, so we can do either one. Oh, and we can vote too.”
“People get behind a ton or more of steel machinery and drive at lethal speeds all the time, and society requires that you go through a licensing process to prove that you’re competent, both physically and mentally to drive,” said Larson. “Is it too much to ask that people should also prove they’re competent mentally and physically to own and operate a much more lethal machine?”
The ladies contend that yes, that doesn’t solve the people selling them on the street, but they say that’s the issue right there. Assault-style weapons are so commonplace nowadays that people do sell them on the street for cash, no questions asked. They say to ask anybody in the Guard or Army or other armed service (because they have family or close friends who’ve served) and they’ll tell you that these weapons require training and discipline to use, and in the service, that training is mandatory. But if you’re just some guy off the street, there’s no training required to buy. All you need to do is just put your cash down, fill out a form, the dealer submits you to the ATF’s instant background check and if they clear you, you’re good to go. Insane doesn’t mean stupid, psychopaths can fill out a form, especially if it gets them what they want, and if there are no prior convictions or the person isn’t actively wanted by law enforcement they will get their hands on one, all too easily.
Both young ladies agree that there are many good gun laws in America. It’s illegal for a person declared legally insane to own, use or even hold a gun. It’s also a felony to sell or give an insane person a gun. But they also say that the laws on the books only work in an after the fact scenario. Crimes must be committed and proven in a court of law first. These young ladies feel that isn’t good enough, that preventing these school and mass shootings from ever happening again should be the number one priority of all Americans. They also dislike widgets like bump-stocks and bi-pull triggers, modifications that allow an AR owner to thumb his or her nose at the spirit, if not the letter of the law, ramping up the speed between shots in a weapon that already fires as fast as you can pull the trigger. A bump stock, for example, was used in the Las Vegas mass shooting this past summer.
“This is not to say that we don’t have faith in the Garretson School to protect us,” said Sage. “I know, and believe that our teachers, staff and administrators are doing everything in their power to keep us safe. Shooter drills, rules about backpacks not being carried from classroom to classroom. Some of it seems silly, but I know why they do it and they have nothing but respect from me for it. Nobody thinks that they’ve done anything less than their best to plan for the worst.”
“They’ve done a lot,” Larson agreed. “Anything they can think of, they’ve done it. Cameras, security systems, and restricted access to the building during school hours. As for bullying, and defeating the kind of scenarios that lead to these kinds of shootings, they do a great job. Miss (Michelle) Pliska (the school councilor) is great! She is doing everything she can possibly do against bulling in our school. We’re small enough that there aren’t really that many social outcasts, and if there are, everybody makes and effort to fix it.”
“I know they care, that they’re doing everything they can to make us safe, but the truth is, we’re not safe,” said Sage. “The main doors of the school may be secure access with a camera, but they’re made of glass. Shooter drills will teach students to hide along the wall in the classroom with the lights off and out of sight. That may save lives, but concrete walls are no protection against high speed bullets coming out of an assault rifle.”
“Again, insane doesn’t mean stupid,” said Larson. “And if this shooter is like the one in Florida, they grew up doing these drills in school themselves. After the horror of the Columbine shootings, every child in America is doing these drills. So anybody looking to commit mass murder will know where to aim the gun and just shoot them through the wall. And with high capacity magazines, they can have reload after reload.”
“It sort of harkens back to the days of atomic bomb drills,” said Sage. “Duck and cover was pretty useless then. I’m not saying the shooter drills don’t help, but I am saying that American students and teachers are still dead.”
So where the rubber meets the road, is that these to young ladies are still planning to walk out in protest on April 20th.
“Sylvia and I are going to do it, and anyone who wants to can join us,” said Sage. “If you do, you’ll know going into it that there will be consequences. We accept that. I will say that as of information I have now, 16 principals in other districts in South Dakota are simply allowing this to happen, maybe Garretson should too.”
Garretson School Superintendent Guy Johnson said he could not comment on many aspects of this story, but he did have this to say.
“The young people at our school are thoughtful, intelligent, and passionate,” he said. “As an educator I’ve seen them in action, both here and in other districts in South Dakota that I’ve worked for. I know they have the belief and the will to make a positive impact, to change in the world for the better. They are always thinking about a lot of issues in our society and never doubt that they are thinking a lot more than adults give them credit for.”
Editor’s Note: Full disclosure. I’m a gun owner. I grew up hunting in South Dakota. I’ve hunted game of all kinds. I’ve participated in sport shooting contests, and marksmanship is one of my many hobbies. I own a variety of firearms; shotguns, handguns and rifles. Most are family heirlooms. I also own an AR-15. I was actually honored when an ex-marine took time out of his day to show me the ins and outs of how my newly purchased rifle worked, and gave me helpful tips on its care and maintenance and the responsibility of owning one. I believe strongly that responsibly and safety are the two key words when it comes to firearms and gun ownership. And I keep my weapons under lock and key. I have kids.
And because I have kids I was appalled at the social media fiasco that happened, as I’m sure the overwhelming majority of Garretson area residents are. Everyone has opinions, but some people should keep their opinions to themselves, especially if they are nothing more than acidic vitriol.
Different people have different views on a lot of social and political issues. That’s what makes our country great, our diversity. Today’s climate is toxic to say the least. Is everyone so afraid of a different idea, or a different approach that they would rather shout down any opposition than even let them speak or express their views?
Here is what I’d like to see. I’d like to see the people of Garretson come shake the hands of these two passionate young women and whoever else joins them when they do their protest, even if you disagree with what they believe and what they’re doing. Show them that social media trolling is not how Garretson treats its youngest citizens.
