GREAT BARRINGTON — Roughly 75 middle school students staged a protest midday Friday to register their strong disapproval of the gun violence that has been plaguing the United States.
Students from Du Bois Middle School exited the school just before noon and were joined by several teachers, some of whom also spoke. Most of the students were carrying signs decrying the violence and calling for more gun-control measures. They were clearly angry and fed up.
See Edge video below of the today’s student protest against gun violence at Du Bois Middle School in Great Barrington:
“I just wanted to say how disgusted I am in our government and how we are handling these issues,” said 8th-grade student Jordan Alston. “It’s ironic how we say we’re the land of the free, but the freedoms we are given are killing hundreds of people a year. I think we need to open our eyes.”
“I shouldn’t have to wake up and hear my mom crying about how she is scared that I am going to school and she’s scared that one day somebody may come into our school and end my life,” Genia Baker, also in 8th grade, added. “That is not okay … there are so many people who are dying these days, because of what? You want to have guns? That’s not fair.”
The protest follows hundreds around the country in the wake of a string of deadly mass shootings, most recently at a school in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman with a military-style semi-automatic rifle fatally shot 19 students and two teachers.
