I read the article published last week (“A Different Perspective on Lockdowns,” April 12, 2018), a response to a previously published letter (“It Is Time for Change,” March 29, 2018), both by fellow high school students. I went through the same lockdown that the other two went through, being a student at Frisch myself.
Last week’s letter did not seem to address the points brought up in “It Is Time for Change.” “A Different Perspective on Lockdowns” focused solely on the idea that we live in an imperfect world and therefore we should have lockdowns. This sentiment is true.
However, “It Is Time for Change” is not saying we should not have lockdowns or fire drills. What it is addressing is the fear we face in the imperfect world we live in. It is not about how lockdowns are ineffective or even scary. It is about how, when we went into a lockdown we thought was real, the whole mass shooting epidemic became very real and palpable.
This did not make me angry at the lockdown drills. I recognize that they are important and that they are effective. However, “It Is Time for Change” is not about that lockdown drills are scaring children, it is about how mass shootings are scaring children. It is calling for change in the underlying issue of mass shootings. It is time for change.
The paragraph in “It Is Time for Change”: “What have we come to that we have to scare children in order to keep them safe? What have we come to that we need lockdown drills every week? Why are we living in a world where we are afraid to go to school? Afraid that every time we say goodbye to someone it will be the last time we spoke?” that “A Different Perspective on Lockdowns” is commenting on is not about lockdown drills in general. It is about how we as a society are constantly needing to have these drills and that is a problem.
The very fact that “A Different Perspective on Lockdowns” is comparing fire drills and earthquake drills to lockdown drills is the very issue “It Is Time for Change” is addressing. Earthquakes and fires are natural disasters, and earthquakes especially are not preventable. A mass shooting is a human attacking humans, not shifting tectonic plates, which are unpreventable.
It is time for change in policy regarding the prevention of mass shootings.
Seela Langer
Junior at The Frisch School
