To the editor:
The school day was almost over, and I was in the cafeteria doing homework and looking forward to the weekend. Suddenly, our principal’s voice came over the loudspeaker with a rushed announcement: “Teachers and students, please initiate lockdown procedure.”
Perplexed, I pulled out my phone to see what was happening. I found reports of a shooting at a school in Colorado three days earlier and a scare in Parsippany that morning. But I saw nothing about my own school, Bergen County Academies.
I tried doing my math homework but couldn’t concentrate.
I texted friends, asking what they knew, but only got rumors back: someone made a threat on social media, there was a shooting at our sister school, and so on.
As time passed my heart beat faster and I really started to worry. Was there a shooter? A threat? What was happening?
Finally, two hours after it started, the lockdown was lifted. An email explained the lockdown was merely a precaution triggered by a suspicious person trying to enter the building.
Even though I was relieved it was over I was still shaken and jittery. Although the lockdown at my school turned out to be a false alarm, I knew that in many other places the danger had been all too real.
As I write this there have been at least 255 mass shootings this year. That’s more than one shooting a day. I am disappointed at the inaction not only of U.S. senators but also my State Assembly members, Holly Schepisi and Bob Auth. Not only do they both have “A” ratings from the NRA, on a key measure Auth voted against limiting magazine capacities to 10 rounds and Schepisi abstained. And Auth abstained from voting on the bill that prohibits persons convicted of certain crimes from purchasing guns.
In the recent shooting in Dayton, Ohio the gunman was able to kill nine and injure 27 people in 30 seconds thanks to large-capacity magazines. Assemblyman Auth also voted nay on a bill that prohibits persons convicted of certain crimes from purchasing guns.
Additionally, neither of my legislators voted for a bill requiring safety and storage training for handgun buyers.
As a 16-year-old, unable to vote, I’ve decided to do what I can to make my voice heard. That’s why I’ve chosen to intern for the Assembly campaign of Westwood Mayor John Birkner Jr. and former police officer and Emerson Council member Gerald Falotico—because I trust that they will always have my back on the issue of gun safety.
Jacob Mitovich
Woodcliff Lake
The writer tells Pascack Press he his volunteering with the Birkner and Falotico campaign but does not have an official title in this role.