By Lily Osgan, GHS Class of 2022
On Friday Greenwich High School’s new Current Events Club decided to take action on gun violence. The club leaders, Isabelle Goldfarb and Abby Wilson, sat at a maroon table at the front of the GHS student center wearing orange shirts. The colors were chosen to honor victims of the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.
Isabelle and Abby had their table adorned with paper with the intention of encouraging other students to approach and write letters to elected officials asking them to take action to stop gun violence. As lunch block began, a swarm of students surrounded their table and began writing.
“These letters will hopefully make somewhat of an impact, at least displaying the perspective of a student,” Abby said. “We want to convey how unsafe I know so many people feel.”
Isabelle recalled that on the day Greenwich High School faced safety concerns after someone scrawled a message on the bathroom wall, she felt unsafe.
“People always say nothing will ever happen because we live in Greenwich,” Isabelle said. “They say that this is the safeest town ever, but you never know where something like this will happen. Shootings happen all around America.”
The pair expressed frustration with the lack of acknowledgement and action that GHS and the town displayed in response to the recent shootings.
“We came to school the day after the Uvalde shooting and no one mentioned it,” Isabelle said. “A friend and I mentioned it to a teacher because we wanted to discuss it, and he was the only person who was willing to have an in-depth conversation about what happened.”
Abby added, “After Uvalde happened, there were a ton of cops lined up, and it was the one day that all the security guards were standing at the door and weren’t letting everyone in, but the day after, all of that was gone.”
When asked if their concerns were taken seriously by the Greenwich High School community, including other students, teachers and administrators, Isabelle stated, “I think our biggest problem is that people don’t think they can make a change, so they are hesitant to try to do so.”
Isabelle expanded: “I think anyone has the ability to make a change, and it’s never too late to make a change. I don’t think there should be fear in taking a stand because as long as you do there will be a lot of people supporting you.”
Abby concluded by saying, “One of my teachers told me his biggest fear is sending his four-year-old daughter to school every day. That should not be a parent’s biggest fear.”