Nashville students protesting gun violence ask "Am I next?"
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Outrage rang out at the Tennessee Capitol on Monday, when throngs of students urged state leaders to take action to prevent school shootings.
Driving the news: The protest came after the deadly shooting at Antioch High School last week, which killed 16-year-old student Josselin Corea Escalante.
- The shooter, who was also a student, killed himself.
State of play: Students walked out of their classes and crowded the plaza outside the capitol, crying, chanting and screaming as the lawmakers inside started work on the special session.
- Republican lawmakers have repeatedly resisted calls for gun control, even as a movement grew out of The Covenant School shooting, which killed six in 2023.
Between the lines: There is no indication conservative lawmakers have softened on the issue. Their focus in the coming days will instead be on school vouchers and immigration.
- Frustration was palpable in the crowd, where students held signs with messages such as "Am I next?"
Members of Escalante's family spoke to the crowd through tears while holding a large poster showing her smiling in a red gown. In Spanish, they pleaded for the protesters to keep her memory alive.
- Sarah Shoop Neumann, a Covenant mom turned activist, said the community must rally around Antioch just as they had for Covenant less than two years ago.
"They need us now more than ever," she said.
- Lawmakers will only respond, she said, if Nashvillians "stand up the same for each and every child slaughtered by a gun."
- "We need the same outpouring of love every single time."