After Sen. Ted Cruz refused to allow even those directly affected by gun violence into his office, they held a die-in
on the grass under his Oak Lawn office window. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
Students hold die-in to protest lawmakers who will do nothing about gun violence
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
Danika McLeod is a student at Santa Fe High School in Texas, where eight students and two teachers were killed and 13 injured on May 18 by a student armed with an assault-style semi-automatic rifle. Danicka drove to Dallas with her mother this week to participate in a die-in on Tuesday, June 12, outside the offices of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
Danika’s brother, Kyle, was one of the eight students who died that day at Santa Fe High.
At the protest here in Dallas on Tuesday, Danika pulled out her cell phone and read aloud the text messages between her and Kyle from the day of the massacre: He told her he was hit in the arm; she pleaded with him to play dead.
But he didn’t have to. By then, he was dead.
Then Danika echoed the strident voices of the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 17 were killed and another 14 wounded by a student armed with the same kind of gun on Valentine’s Day this year. Those students made headlines around the word by refusing to be consoled by “thoughts and prayers,” and forced the Florida Legislature to enact some new gun regulations.
“Guns are the problem, and because you won’t fix it, we will,” Danicka told any elected officials who might be listening.
Students from Plano West High School planned the die-in at Sen. Ted Cruz’s Oak Lawn office to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, when 49 people were murdered and more than 50 others wounded by an assailant with a semi-automatic assault-style rifle.
When Cruz’s office refused to allow the protesters to enter the building, the more than 50 students, teachers, parents and supporters held their event on the lawn on the corner of Hall and Welborn streets, under the senator’s office windows.
Before the 12-minute die-in, students, including some who have been personally affected by gun violence, spoke. One student, Lexy, read the names of the 49 people killed at Pulse.
“After Pulse, I was left with an eternal feeling of fear,” she said, calling the massacre “one of the greatest hate crimes in our history.”
Along with other speakers, Lexy condemned political leaders who take National Rifle Association money and do nothing about gun violence. Cruz is the No. 1 recipient of NRA funds.
“Our leaders have failed us,” she said. “Guns kill people. Donald Trump’s thoughts and prayers do nothing.”
A McKinney North High School student named Marianna spoke about a recent gun tragedy at her school. On June 1, her school was placed on lockdown when one student died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
She described how her class led special needs students into a closet during the lockdown, held their hands and protected them. Afterwards, she was told to be grateful that there was only one death.
“I shouldn’t have to be grateful only one student was killed at my school,” she said.
After the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, McKinney North students protested and held discussions about school safety. They were told not to mention guns.
Another student from Santa Fe High School criticized people who are “pro-life until guns are involved.” She called security measures being taken to protect schools “stressful” and objected to police on campus because of racial profiling.
Arming teachers? “Our teachers are not soldiers,” she said, adding, “If we don’t have money to put in bathroom stalls doors that work, why do we have money to arm teachers?”
She also quoted statistics that show that more guns equal more homicides. “Save lives — vote them out,” she said. “Dear Ted Cruz: We are dying. Help.”
One student organizer of the event encouraged students who are old enough to register to vote, and she urged all students, even those who won’t be able to vote this fall, to get involved in the election. She suggested Plano’s U.S. House candidate Lorie Burch, who is a lesbian and a Democrat, as a “gun sense” candidate that teens should be backing.
Once the speakers finished, people attending did a 12-minute die-in remembering not just the victims of Pulse but everyone killed and injured in gun violence.
