The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Source:
Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:40 PM
Ohio Teenager Wounded In 2017 School Shooting Say It's Disrepectful Of Victims Of Parkland To Use Tragedy To Further Political Agenda
West Liberty-Salem High School student Logan Cole said in a Facebook video he won't participate in the Wednesday student walkouts promoted by organizers of the Women's March.
He argues that they're oversimplifying the problem of school violence by advocating more gun control as the solution.
"I feel like violence in our schools and in our society is a much deeper issue, and I feel like it's a little bit simplistic to look at this and point out gun control as the problem," he said.
Cole said it's better to honor the
Parkland victims in a nonpolitical way. He is inviting classmates to
join him in doing that through a midday Wednesday memorial service at
his school.
He said the gathering will include readings of the names of the 17
victims from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and moments of
silence. Similar actions are planned with many of the coordinated school
walkouts scheduled around the country on Wednesday, the one-month
anniversary of the Florida shooting.
Cole calls his own survival a "miracle" after being shot twice with a
shotgun at close range in January 2017 at a bathroom in his school near
West Liberty, about 55 miles (89 kilometers) northwest of Columbus. Cole
was critically hurt, and another student was slightly injured.
The teen suspect in the shooting has pleaded not guilty by reason of
insanity to charges including attempted murder.