Mi'Kah's Winning Essay for our 2023 Scholarship

Mi'Kah West is a high school student from Detroit, Michigan who has been personally impacted by gun violence. Read below for the essay she wrote that made her a recipient of our 2023 scholarship:

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“Ban books, not guns.” There have been approximately 386 mass school

shootings in America since Columbine massacre in 1999. Yet, the banning of

firearms has not yet been implemented into our country, despite the recent

protests and surges made by teachers and administrators. Governor Gretchen

Whitmer has yet to enforce this law in Michigan, even though a shooting at

Oxford High School took place less than two years ago, her plan of action

was to place more safety officers with guns in classrooms with students. This

action has gotten lots of media attention and received black lash from the

teachers, but i yet to see mainstream media reporting the students' perspective

of the incidents or how they feel about Whitmer’s decision. Students often

forget their right of public speech due to fear of retaliation from the schools,

or in my case the fear of being rejected. My organization D.A.Y.U.M wrote a

petition to Gretchen Whitmer asking her to rethink the plan of action, in

response she said she was doing what was best for us and what the parents

had wanted. How do you know what’s best for me? Do you know how it feels

to be policed by an officer with a gun in his back pocket? The guns are the

reason the shootings are happening, yet you are adding more to the situation.

Whitmer’s response made me feel unheard and unseen. Other students felt

hopeless as well, some expressing that their feelings must be wrong because

“they know what’s best”. If students knew that they had a voice, and that they

would use it and fight against officials we could win. If students knew that

policing in schools does not undermine the factor of gun violence they would

speak up. If students knew that their stories, experiences and attitudes

towards guns were bigger than just themselves they would feel compelled to

act towards ending it. Students need a platform, a way to express their

feelings and emotions towards the issue with others from all across the world.

These stories need to hit the mainstream media, Gretchen Whitmer needs to

know that more guns don’t eliminate the chances of school shootings.

American officials need to stop banning books on LGBTQ+ rights and start,

banning guns that are killing their children and grandchildren, before they are

next to tell the story on how it’s affecting them. We must act now before it’s

too late. Bullets travel 1700 miles an hour, but stories can travel faster.