You know something special is brewing when the most talked about public event at Harvard in some time is a discussion featuring high school students.
But the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., are no ordinary juniors and seniors. Perhaps not since the days of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee has a small group of students been able to light a flame under America on an issue that many thought was hopelessly intractable, in this case gun violence.
In the five weeks since the Feb. 14 killing of 17 at their high school by a young gunman, students Matt and Ryan Deitsch, Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky, and Alex Wind have become among the most recognizable faces and passionate voices for #NeverAgain, a movement that has pushed the debate over gun safety and violence past the usual political barriers.
During a visit to the Harvard Kennedy School hosted by the Institute of Politics Tuesday evening, the students shared how they have tried to transform the pain and tragedy they experienced in the attack into a powerful national movement for student activism and social change.