SYLVANIA, Ohio — Sandy Hook. Parkland. Uvalde. Nashville.
In the first 68 days of this year, there have been 106 mass shootings in the U.S., according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Usually, lunch hour for a high school teenager is a part of the school day they look forward to. It's a time to mingle with friends but for some Southview students in Sylvania today, they will be spending it very differently.
Precisely at noon, hundreds of students will walk down the hallways and stairwells, rendezvousing in the campus's senior courtyard, where they will hold a moment of silence and speak on a topic that many of them have had to train for during the year: school shootings.
"We hope to call on lawmakers to do something. We want to see action," said Nina Greenberg, a senior at Southview. "We want to see less students dying on their campus'."
Greenberg is a local leader of the national organization Students Demand Action. Southview High School's website defines the students in this organization as 'young activists committed to ending gun violence in our communities.' Greenberg is known around the area for her passion for gun reform and advocacy work.
Greenberg's worries are more personal than most, and closer to home, as her dad teaches at the same school she attends, her mom teaches at another school down the road and both of her younger sisters are also in school. Her home life is tightly interwoven with her school life. The dangers she feels she faces attending classes in 2023 are shared by those she loves the most.
"It's especially nerve wracking and disheartening to know that both of our lives will be at risk," expressed Greenberg. "My whole family is involved one way or another in the school system."
"We talk about it. We fear for our kids," said Dan Greenberg, Nina's dad who is also an English teacher at Southview High School. "We fear for all the kids we work with here at Sylvania Schools."
High school students around the country will hold walkouts today just like the one in Sylvania.
"We hope to call on lawmakers to do something, to see action," expressed Greenberg. "We want to see less students dying on their campus."
Check out photos from the walkout below:
