After a wave of gun violence in American schools this year, a group of concerned students convened with Mr. Ziegler, NHS’s Dream Director, last month to discuss a variety of issues related to gun violence and school safety at NPS.

The group chose to act after February 14 when in the town of Parkland, Florida, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School fell victim to a school shooting that left 17 people dead.

Some of the issues discussed were mental health, lack of security staff in most of the school district, and school door lock times.

The group consists of six students, who for the purposes of this article, will be kept anonymous.

The meeting began with students listing issues that the group has seen within the school.The students talked about fights, bystanders of violence, depression, door close times, and student preparedness for traumatic events.  The issues were then sorted into three main categories: school security, mental health, bullying.

The group decided unanimously to explore the issue of school security and how the student and administrative bodies feel about it, but hoping to bring other issues to light later on.

On March 9, the group convened for the second time to construct a mission statement and plan its next actions; the group hopes to  work with administrators to send out a survey to multiple district schools and to hold listening sessions with students and some staff, such as the school resource officer and Mrs. Saam.

The group will reconvene on the15th after school in the library and again with Mr. Ziegler on the March 16.

New members are welcome.