BASEHOR, Kan. — It's not a topic that's easy discuss: school shootings are happening more and more often in the US.
"It shouldn't be an issue that kids are having to worry about or that kids are being brought to the point that they have no hope and coming into school with a gun," Basehor-Linwood High School teacher, Molly Gomez said.
"I remember when Parkland happened, I didn't come to school for three days 'cause I was just scared," Basehor-Linwood high school senior, LaKaia Smith said. "I had these nightmares that that was going to happen here."
In November of 2019, CNN said that in 46 weeks, there were 45 school shooting. That's an average of one school shooting a week. Of those, 32 were at facilities for K-12 students. One of those shootings was right here in Kansas City, back in February when a 15-year-old girl was shot and killed just outside a high school.
"That's a problem," Smith said. "But when you look to the base problem is how people treat each other."
That's why Basehor- Linwood senior, LaKaia Smith is diving into conversations with her peers and the community about prevention through her Innovation Academy class.
"What we have around here are the different ideation posters," Gomez said. "So they were analyzing a problem and they spent a lot of time really empathizing what does the community need, what do we need to do to improve our community.
Smith says one of the solutions students can work on is talking with one another.
"At the end of the day, everybody's going through something and it sucks, but if you just take the time to say hi or just pay attention to someone like that, it could change everything," Smith said.
She's currently working on bringing a shooting victim to talk with students and the community about the effects school shootings have. And through her project, she hope to can start a ripple effect of kindness in the classrooms.
"The theme is we are worth it and just making people feel like they matter cause that is something that is really lacked in high school settings is some people can feel out of place. They can feel disconnected with their peers and just making them feel worth it is what I think is really needed," Smith said. "We just need to make everyone feel loved and make them feel powerful in their own way and not have to result in violence or anything like that."
Smith is working to raise $5,000 to bring in a Virginia Tech shooting victim, Kristina Anderson, to speak with the community and her school. If you'd like to donate, you can visit the Koshka Foundation. You can put in the comments that your donation is supporting Basehor-Linwood school district's visit, that way Smith can apply those donations needed to bring Anderson in to visit.
