A recently formed group of Poplar Bluff High School students held a political forum Friday night to have what was described as a "useful dialogue" regarding gun violence with candidates running for state offices and the district's superintendent.
The forum was held on the same day another school shooting occurred. This time it was at a suburban Indianapolis middle school. A male student reportedly opened fire, injuring another student and a teacher.
For more than two hours the panel -- Robert Smith (D-candidate 152nd House District), Matt Michel (D-candidate 153rd House District), Jack "Skip" Johnson (R-candidate 153rd House District), Kathy Ellis (D-candidate 8th Congressional District) and Poplar Bluff R-1 superintendent Scott Dill -- answered questions from members of Students for Progress and the audience.
Topics from the students included what legislation each would propose regarding guns, as well as arming teachers, school resources officers, prosecution of gun offenses, background checks, felons possessing weapons, how guns and mental health issues are related and domestic violence.
Students for Progress, Jackson Winters told the audience of about 50 students, former students, teachers and community members, was started in late February and early March, and its focus is on making a positive change on "our community."
The group, he said, wanted to have a useful dialogue about the issue of gun violence and the effects of gun violence on schools and was encouraged by those who came out to participate in the forum.
"We are trying to change our community and be more active" in it, said Winters, the group's vice president.
By forming Students for Progress (S4P), "we are able to give ourselves a platform to speak our minds and get involved in our communities," Winters explained.
That, Winters said, is something the group's members are looking forward to, and the forum was only one aspect. Group members, he said, also have held fundraisers, volunteered for the Bread Shed and tutored other students.
"We about making a positive change on our community ... by taking action" through political involvement and volunteering, Winters said.
Members, he said, identified as "major problem" during their discussions on gun violence on "both the left and right" sides of the issue.
Winters said there is much talk from politicians, but "nothing gets done."
The forum, he said, provided an opportunity for discussion on "how we can find solutions to the problem."
It was about talking "directly to our politicians" about the issues regardless of their political affiliation, Winters said.
According to S4P President Brett Keele, the students hate to see all the "partisan politics being played" and nothing being done "because people are too set on their own sides to compromise and talk about a resolution with one another, especially when you have shootings happening time and time again."
Gun violence, he said, was an issue the students felt needed to be addressed.
Geneva Taylor, a S4P board member, said it was exciting to have the opportunity to talk about the issue.
The forum was an opportunity "for us to get to talk to the people" running for office "who will be influencing the policy on this and get their perspective because (gun violence) is an issue very close to all of our hearts," Taylor said.
School shootings, according to Taylor, are in the news all the time.
"They are happening more often now than they have ever," she said. "It's something that we deal with personally. ... It's very close to students because it is students that are impacted by it."
Taylor said S4P was formed right after the Parkland school shooting in Florida.
"We talked to the administration and were trying to get approval to participate in the walk out ... the 17 minutes for the 17 victims," she explained. "We couldn't get approval for that, so we said 'let's do this.'
"(The group) came from that, and we took it and run with it."
Keele said S4P gives students a platform to "help our community (and) do our part to make Poplar Bluff and the surroundings areas a better place to live and to go school."
The issue of gun violence, Keele said, is a very important issue to discuss.
"As students, we see these things happen across the country, school shootings," like the one that happened Friday morning, Keele said.
It's heartbreaking, Keele said, to see "these things continuing to happen time and time again without anything being done about it. It's tragic."
Keele described the forum as a good opportunity for not only students, but the community, to come together to discuss an issue effecting "our entire country."
"I've always been very passionate about politics and giving students a voice" and giving them an opportunity, "aside from what their parents tell them or what they hear all around them," to have an "educated perspective and to be able to influence ... the world around them and to be active members of society," said Taylor.
Further, Taylor said, she believes a person's "place in the world is what you make of it. If you want to have a voice, you give yourself a voice.
"You get yourself out there and talk with people."
Dill said he was proud of the students and what they were trying to create with the forum.
"Establishing a healthy dialogue is the best way to move forward," Dill said. "I think there is nothing so dangerous going on in this country that we can't have civil discourse about it.
"Regardless of which side people come down on, these young people have taken it upon themselves to create a forum for people to discuss important issues. I'm proud of them; much prouder than I would have been if they had walked out of school."