Yesterday, members of Congress were forced into lockdown after a mob of rioters was incited by Donald Trump to storm the Capitol in an attempted coup to overturn the presidential election.
The photos of our representatives hiding from domestic terrorists are disturbing, scary, and deeply unsettling. But for many young people who've had to go through active shooter drills at school (or worse, actual shootings), the images felt all too familiar.
And now, people are using the images to make an important point about the ways Congress has failed students and teachers when it comes to keeping their schools safe.
Here's what some people on Twitter are saying:
1.
"I don't feel sorry for congress at all. Oh, I'm sorry, did you have to hide under your desk because of guns? Wah wah wah. I've only had to do that six times since kindergarten. School is terrifying. Maybe now they'll pass gun reform." - one of my 9th grade students, today
2.
Republicans in congress cowering under their desks as violent men roam the hallways finally understand what they've put every school kid in America through.
3.
Have the members of Congress who “never could have imagined instructing their staffs to barricade themselves under desks” considered what school teachers in our country do everyday?
4.
I’m sure it was absolutely terrifying for members of Congress to hear gunshots in their chamber today. This is only the 3rd time a gun has been fired in the Capitol Building since 1814. For context, American school children experience this an average of once every 47 days.
5.
Maybe congress should have invited school children to teach them what to do in the case of an active shooter.
6.
@MEPFuller well, Congress gets to experience the real life version of what school children have to practice regularly.
7.
I wonder how Congress enjoyed the lockdown and I also wonder if they now have a better understanding of how school children felt when an active shooter invaded their safe and sacred space.
8. March For Our Lives — the gun control activist group created by students from Parkland High School — also posted a statement:
We hope that members of Congress who are sheltering in place remain safe, we know how scary this can be. We’ve been practicing shelter-in-place since we were four years old. It changes you.
9. And a few Parkland alumni have shared statements of their own:
Congress is now seeing just a small amount of what American school children have gone through for decades with active shooter drills and shootings enabled by their inaction.
10.
Our lawmakers now have a brand new perspective on what it’s like to be locked in a room uncertain if they will be attacked and subsequently evacuated while violence breaks out around them. Let’s see if they finally decide to do something about school shootings.
11. And finally, TikTok — the preferred social media app of Gen Z — has created some compelling videos explaining lockdown drills to their representatives:
Let's all be grateful that no elected officials were hurt in Trump's attack — and let's hope they start using their power to protect others moving forward.
