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‘Stop this massacre’: Iowa students protest gun violence
Hundreds of students walk out of school Monday following school shooting at Perry High School last week
Jan. 8, 2024 6:20 pm
IOWA CITY — Iowa students are calling for an end to the “massacre” of children, asking lawmakers to consider stronger gun laws following a shooting at Perry High School last week where a sixth-grader was killed.
Hundreds of students across Iowa walked out of school Monday in protest of gun violence organized by March For Our Lives Iowa, a student-led group advocating for ending gun violence and encouraging youth civic engagement.
It was the first day of school after winter break for students in the Iowa City Community School District, who made their way by carpooling and walking to the Pentacrest in downtown Iowa City.
“My mother never wants me to go to school. I have to essentially convince her going to school is worth it,” said Reyna Roach, 17, a senior at Iowa City High School. “I think that’s not a unique experience, because it’s terrifying. You never know what’s going to happen. There’s always this uncertainty.”
Roach said she first attended a March For Our Lives protest in 2018, when she was 12 years old. “I was more hopeful that our government would actually do something to stop this massacre,” Roach said. “This type of violence is completely unacceptable.”
About 15 schools in Iowa participated in the protest, and around 300 students also met at the Iowa State Capitol Monday on the first day of the legislative session, said Akshara Eswar, 17, a state director with March For Our Lives Iowa and a senior at Johnston High School in Johnston.
Two days before the shooting at Perry High School, March For Our Lives Iowa met with lawmakers at the state Capitol to talk about legislative priorities.
“At that (news) conference, I said, ‘Gun violence isn’t just some faraway issue that you see on the news. It can happen here. It can happen now. And tragically, two days later it did,” Hannah Hayes, a senior at Des Moines Roosevelt High School and the other co-director of March for Our Lives Iowa, said during Monday’s rally at the Capitol.
March For Our Lives Iowa’s legislative priorities are:
- Extreme risk protection orders, which authorizes courts to temporarily block a person in crisis from accessing firearms;
- Closing domestic abuse and misdemeanor loopholes, which would prevent people who abused their current or recent dating partners from possessing firearms;
- And mandatory reporting of lost or stolen firearms.
As of July 2021, Iowa does not require a permit to purchase a handgun or carry a firearm in public, but it does mandate a background check for anyone buying a handgun without a permit.
Hayes’ remarks at the Des Moines rally included a focus on choice, an allusion to Reynolds’ legislative priorities in 2023, which she often describes as giving parents more authority over and choice in their children’s education. Hayes said one choice that parents face is whether to send their children to school so they can get a good education, or keep them home so they can be safe from gun violence.
“Gov. Reynolds can make this choice easier by passing gun legislation that will actually keep children safe. Because we choose policy and change over more empty thoughts and prayers,” Hayes said. “If elected officials don’t protect people, we will choose to vote them out.”
On Thursday, Jan. 4, a 17-year-old opened fire at Perry High School in Iowa. Ahmir Jolliff, 11, a sixth-grader in Perry known by his family as “Smiley,” died. Seven others were wounded.
The March For Our Lives Iowa leaders were “heartbroken, angry” and “not surprised” by the school shooting, Eswar said. “It’s imperative we have new gun laws. We are asking for change,” she said.
“I’m sick of seeing young, Black kids dying, especially in places where they’re supposed to be safe,” said Marina Escandell-Tapias, 18, a senior at City High School.
Although Escandell-Tapias said she feels Iowa City is a “protected community,” she said it’s still scary to go to school where there’s always uncertainty, and she worries about her sister, who is also in high school.
Kiara Gerdes, 16, a sophomore at West High School, said she has a plan if she were ever to be in a similar situation. “I have a message written out in my mind, a text to my mom telling her I love her because it might be the last time I talk to her,” she said.
Genna Ray, 17, a junior at West High School, said she thinks about risking her own life for her classmates if she were in a school shooting. “It’s something I live in fear of,” she said.
In a message to families Sunday, Iowa City schools Superintendent Matt Degner said students have the right to participate in organized protests and walkouts. School officials worked with students who chose to participate to do so in “a way that creates minimal disruption to the learning environment,” he said.
“We empathize with our students’ frustration, fear and anger surrounding these events,” said Degner, adding that school counselors are available to students.
Proclamation assists Perry response
Reynolds, in her office on Monday, signed a disaster proclamation that authorizes state resources, including supplies, materials and equipment, to assist Perry and Dallas County in the ongoing response to the school shooting.
“Through this proclamation, I am unleashing the full power of state government to help Perry High School, the Perry community, and Dallas County recover from this senseless tragedy,” Reynolds said in a news release.
Erin Murphy of The Gazette and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
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