This Wednesday, young people across the country walked out of their schools to demand an end to gun violence. In Vermont, students not only fought discouragement from education leaders, but also a winter storm that shut down school districts across the state, in order to get their message out.
The walkouts were the latest step in a rising wave of student activism following the shooting last month in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed. Students have staged demonstrations at the Vermont Statehouse and the University of Vermont to pressure lawmakers to advance stricter gun control legislation.
“We’re finally old enough where we can speak to our experience going to school in this world where we kind of have to fear for our lives,” says Sophia Venturo, a senior at Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans, who helped organize a walkout at her school. “We want to use our voices to call attention to the fact that that is not okay.”
On this week’s podcast, Venturo describes what it’s like growing up with the threat of gun violence in school as a daily reality. Plus, VTDigger editor Colin Meyn recaps recent progress on the multiple gun bills under consideration in the Vermont Legislature.
Subscribe to the Deeper Dig on Apple Podcasts or Google Play. Music by Lee Rosevere.
