Headline: “The School Shooting Generation Has Had Enough”
The Parkland Shooting is one of those “Where were you when…?” events in American history. I can tell you where I was and what I was doing on February 14, 2018.
As a Catholic high school senior , I recall haunting images of Parkland survivors with ashes on their foreheads, on a day when Ash Wednesday shared the spotlight with Valentine’s Day.
In Charlotte Alter’s article, I really enjoy how she sets the scene in the first paragraph. It provides a great contrast from the very serious sounding title. These kids have had enough, but just like kids everywhere, they’re heading to a pizza place to eat.
The details are entrancing. Emma González forms a clever metaphor. Alter takes note of the distinct way in which the four of them are eating. There are humorous moments in a serious story; Kasky denies being a “deep state” actor by saying that his credit card was declined and they agree that the NRA spokeswoman is “very hot but kind of scary.”
Alter then positions the reader. Here these kids are merely a month after their tragedy just a hundred feet away at this pizza place. The author reveals in a most succinct way the events that have transpired since the shooting, including how the four teens being featured started the Never Again movement.
The thing Alter does really well in this story is frame the possible versus the impossible. She knows that these kids have an uphill battle at any real change, and she is sure to make that known. However, she also makes sure the reader knows that they are also making a world of difference, even if the results are not so concrete.
Alter takes a break from the profile to provide necessary background information about the gun issue in America. The United States disproportionately has a huge share of the world’s guns and its mass shooters, yet consistently balks at attempting any legislative solution.
What follows are cryptic portraits of four teens plus movement leader David Hogg, as well as accounts of their disdain for then-Florida Governor Rick Scott and Senator Marco Rubio. Alter marks the simultaneous popularization of the National School Walkout with the public outcry against the NRA. Surprisingly, many Republican state congress members and the Republican Scott helped to enact a bill that march that tightened the state’s gun laws.
Alter again prompts the reader to question the success of the Never Again movement if it results in no legislation or sways young people whose views on strict gun laws remain unmoved.
With this perspective, Alter presents a picture bigger than the Parkland movement itself. She transitions for a second from “will this movement mean anything” to “do movements like this ever mean anything.”
The story then weaves the reader into the movement’s headquarters inside a donated office space in a strip mall. The sparse conditions of the office are contrasted by what Alter calls a “ferocious optimism.”
Alter more than once draws the connection between the teenager’s behavior and President Trump’s, especially with the comments they make about other people and how they use social media. Is she condoning the students’ actions as mimicry of the President or perpetuating the behavior?
Alter provides a necessary component to the story near the end by reporting on the $4 million in donations received from celebrities to Mike Bloomberg to Tom Steyer.
But she ends the article with a pointed skepticism, based largely on how effective the student-targeted movement could be at the polls, since the youngest voter demographic votes the least. Student voting then shot to about 50% for the 2018 midterms as a response to movements like Never Again.
Alter wrote a solid article. By weaving between the narrative of these teenagers who were simply starting a movement out of tragedy against the backdrop of an ongoing national debate, the story has fantastic contextualization.
That, combined with its awesome pictures and memorable (often humorous) quotes, made this an easy and fascinating read about how young people can fight to make a difference in response to tragedy.