Meet the post-millennials who want adults to make Texas schools safer

Anika Shah wasn't born in April 1999 when two teens attacked Columbine High School in Colorado killing 13 people and instilling fear in a nation that wondered if children are no longer safe in schools.

Still, the 17-year-old junior from Southlake Carroll Senior High School can list facts about Columbine and other mass school shootings with the confidence of a debate champion.

"I was born in a generation of school shootings," Shah said, explaining how Columbine is part of a frightful timeline of tragedy that now includes the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.. She has taken this message the her school board and city council.

Shah is among the Post-Millennial activists who are pushing communities and lawmakers across the country to address gun violence in schools even as they study for college entrance exams. On Wednesday, youth activists from Parkland, Florida and across the country participated in walkouts.

Allies in Texas recently held a walkout in Southlake and similar events are planned in upcoming days.

"It's important that we take the time to share what we want to say," said Lucy Ariola, a junior at Fort Worth's Paschal High School, who hopes her activism will help other students find a voice in the discussion on school safety.

In North Texas, activists like Shah and Ariola are in high schools and middle schools that sit in deep blue cities and deep red suburbs. Many want to attend a March For Our Lives event planned for March 24 in downtown Fort Worth and they are using Facebook, Twitter and other social media to organize.

"We are just trying to make schools safer and end this epidemic of school shootings," said Pascal junior Lillian Scott, who along with Ariola is organizing the March 24 event in downtown Fort Worth. March for Our Lives is a nationwide event planned by the survivors of the Parkland mass shooting.

Youth activists across Tarrant County have also joined the #NationalSchoolWalkout movement. They have plans to hold walkouts on April 20 to commemorate the 17 victims of Stoneman Douglas. That day also marks the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shootings.

Post-millennial activists are pushing for action in communities that don't always take kindly to people questioning a person's right to own guns. Their message is often met by harsh criticism from adults or people who wonder why they are walking out of school.

Jordan Vine, 18, a youth activist at Eaton High School in the Northwest school district, said naysayers won't make her lose focus on school safety.

"As an activist, I use it as fuel to keep doing what I am doing," said Vine, who is organizing a walk out on April 20. She stressed that she stays on message when critics turn cruel, adding: "We don't have time to let it hurt us. Any attention for our cause is good attention."

'That could be me'

Even though these post-millennials represent a new wave of activism, they are not unlike youth of years past who challenged civil rights, voting rights and free speech, said Max Krochmal, an associate professor of history at TCU.

"They test the boundaries around them. That includes social boundaries and legal boundaries," he said.

The Pew Research Center recently described post-millennials as the generation of young people born after 1996. The older members of this generation don't remember 9-11 because they were babies. Still, they have grown up amidst "galvanizing events" such as the shooting of Trayvon Martin, Krochmal said. These young people listened to grownups debate the Black Lives Matter movement, immigration reform and gun laws.

Krochmal said many put themselves in the shoes of victims they saw in the news and said to themselves: "Wow, that could be me."

As mass shootings continued to dominate news, young people took a stand. Their generation's most prominent voices are the young victims of Stoneman Douglas High School who use tweets, walk outs and marches to challenge the establishment.

Krochmal, who directs the Civil Rights in Black and Brown Oral History Project, said young people are often at the forefront of social change.

Young activists of different generations share some traits, Krochmal said. They are experiencing the world around them with new eyes and heed an inner calling when they witness social injustice. Often, they carry a sense of invincibility and aren't burdened by politics, he said.



"Young folks can see right and wrong," Krochmal said, adding that they want to hold those in charge accountable. Also, young people may be less risk averse. “Young people want to see what is next and what they can become."

In the 1960s, young people fought for civil rights for African-Americans. They also pushed their First Amendment rights and ushered protections that this generation relies on when they tell school leaders they plan to walk out.

Shah and her fellow youth activist Alanna Miller give a nod to previous generations on their activist Twitter account, Operation Walk Out. They wear orange bandanas on their arms to symbolize the need for anti-gun-violence measures — a gesture that alludes to black armbands worn by students who protested the Vietnam War.

Shah said they owe much to the Tinker case, in which students who were suspended for wearing armbands successfully sued their school district on free speech grounds.

"They paved the way for youth activism," Shah said, referring to Mary Beth Tinker and John Tinker, two of the students in the landmark case.

'These kids are scared'

Technology allows students to organize their activist or political movements, but it is also the tool that brings tragedy to teens in almost in real time.

"We can see things as they happen and we can see exactly how gruesome they are," Vine said, explaining that she evolved into an activist in an era that captured shootings broadcast on Facebook Live.

That tragedy-in-real-time phenomena was taking place during the Parkland mass shootings and it scared people, Vine said.

"We go to school for the purpose of learning and being safe and as of right now, because of gun violence, we don't feel safe," Vine said.

Whether they are organizing in Arlington, Fort Worth, Southlake, Flower Mound or Keller, young activists said they want to learn and study without fear of being victims of the next school shooting. They are looking for adults to help.

"I think it is important for young people to speak up and stand up," Scott said. "We see a lot of tings that older people don't see."

In Fort Worth, Scott and Ariola contacted Councilwoman Ann Zadeh to find out logistics of holding a march in the city and she pointed out the process for setting up a march. Zadeh said she sees young people who have found a passion and are putting in community service on their own time.

"I think it is fantastic," said Zadeh, adding that this movement reminds her of youth activism of years past.

In Southlake, Shah also wants adults to listen.

"Adults have failed us as far as laws and policies," said Shah, who wants better coordination between schools and law enforcement and her school district to add more counselors trained to answer the emotional issues of students. Shah helped organize the recent walkout at Carroll Senior High and promised to keep pushing these issues.

Michelle Moore, a school board member in the Southlake Carroll school district, said the 650 students who walked out faces a lot of criticism on social media.

Moore said many people asked school leaders: "Why are we doing this?"

Carroll students have concerns and the district needs to explore how to make schools safer while including young people in the conversation, Moore said.

"These kids are scared and we need them to have this moment," Moore said.

This report contains material from the Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 10:13 AM with the headline "Meet the post-millennials who want adults to make Texas schools safer."