Sharing Students' `March for Our Lives' Remarks

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, on May 9, I came to the Floor and spoke about the March For Our Lives on March 24 and the nine extraordinarily poised students in Morristown, New Jersey, who spoke at the rally there, which I attended. Because they were too long to insert into the Record together, I am submitting them individually. I hope my colleagues will read them and internalize the sense of fear in which our nation's students are living every day--and our responsibility as Members of Congress to do something to address this crisis of gun violence. March For Our Lives' Remarks by Caitlyn Dempsey

``Hi. My name is Caitlyn Dempsey, I am a senior at Randolph, NJ. A few weeks ago, in a dark room as my class cowered in the comer, we were taught how to avoid getting sprayed with bullets if a shooter were to break a window. We were given tips on throwing projectiles at the perpetrator. I was in calculus. I should've been learning derivatives and integrals.

Kids debate if they should jump out a window and risk death or broken bones or stay in the classroom if they were accosted by a shooter.

Teachers have to decide if they should throw themselves in front of students.

Teachers consider what it would mean for them if they had to be trained to use firearms.

This is what it's like to be educated in America.

We are being prepared for war.

Because at the base of it, that is what our society is doing. Our children, from kindergarten to high school are battle ready.

And we should angry about that. This is our future. Our lives are on the line. These teachers, the people we look up to and trust, their lives are on the line.

I challenge you to consider how afraid we are. This is not a joke, a ploy, a means to get something done. This is a real, tangible fear that we feel every single day. We talk about it at lunch. In class. On the bus.

This is what it's like to be educated in America. And there's something wrong with that.

As a result, this talented, passionate group of young adults and I have become a force to be reckoned with. However, the assertion that this is a recent movement is incorrect. We have been begging for this since Sandy Hook. Since Columbine. We're done begging. We demand that our legislators take action to create more comprehensive gun legislation. We assert that it is time for our elected officials to be held accountable for their constituents.

A good friend of mine recently reminded me that we have been learning that actions speak louder than words since Kindergarten. So we walked out. So we've written our congressmen. So we planned this March.

Now that is what it should be like to be educated in America. Kids standing up for what they believe in, creating a better future for themselves and the next generation.

I urge students who feel like they have been wronged to stand up, and speak out. Your voice has been silenced but enough is enough.

Thank you so much.''

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