美国国家公共电台 NPR 'We Were In That School': Parkland Students Prepare To Return After Shooting

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Students go back to class tomorrow at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. It will have been two weeks since 17 people were killed in a shooting there. Fifteen-year-old Gabe Glassman is a sophomore¹ at the school, and Youth Radio worked with him to capture what it feels like for teens who are trying to both make their school safer and lead normal lives.

GABE GLASSMAN, BYLINE²: The past few weeks, my house has been command central for supplies for teachers whose rooms were shot up and may never be reopened.

LISA GLASSMAN: More markers into Conor's car. Conor's car is taking markers.

G. GLASSMAN: This is my life now - helping³ my mom organize supplies from around the country, then meeting up with friends before counseling.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL #1: Oh, my God, did you guys bring food?

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: I brought some munchkins and coffee.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL #2: Wow. I have not eaten...

G. GLASSMAN: Then speaking at a rally or visiting memorials in the park, then going on social media to check out my posts about gun control.

So I'm checking Twitter right now and over 2,200 people have seen my tweet. And 46 people have liked it. Twenty-eight people have retweeted it. And now I'm wondering what my other tweets look like. So I'm going to go to - ooh (ph), this is my mom. (Unintelligible) Hold on. Hey, Mom.

L. GLASSMAN: Hi, honey.

G. GLASSMAN: My mom's been checking in with me a lot. Her name is Lisa Glassman.

L. GLASSMAN: OK, so how are you feeling right now for real? Tell me what's going on in your mind and stuff.

G. GLASSMAN: A lot. A lot is going on in my mind, obviously. There's so much that I have to think about - going back to school, me and my Twitter life, my activist⁴ life.

ALEX WIND: This is definitely part of coping, not necessarily grieving.

G. GLASSMAN: That's my friend, Alex Wind. We're in theater together. But now he's more famous for his activism. He helped start the #NeverAgain movement after texting with friends.

WIND: As much as we're doing all these interviews and doing all this stuff, we're still kids. And we were in that school.

G. GLASSMAN: #NeverAgain grew from a hashtag on Twitter to a March for Our Lives scheduled for next month in Washington, D.C., and around the country. It's a lot to handle.

WIND: There are hundreds of messages at all times. And we're trying our hardest. I - we're all so busy all day long.

G. GLASSMAN: While we've been out of school, it seems like everyone has been part of this movement. I'm speaking, tweeting and writing letters to government officials, and I'm not even one of the organizers.

WIND: There's no central leader. It's a team effort. And I think that's what's most important. You know, we'll split up and we'll say, OK, this group, let's do this thing. This group, do this thing.

ARIANA ORTEGA: So we have many group chats where we have students speaking about legislative⁵ stuff, emotions, plans - everything.

G. GLASSMAN: That's Ariana Ortega. She's a senior.

ORTEGA: Two weeks ago, we were all going prom dress shopping, looking at - sending each other pictures. All of those things seem so insignificant⁶ now.

G. GLASSMAN: Well, that's what happens when your life changes that fast. I had to hide in a closet for an hour and 20 minutes and get evacuated⁷ by a SWAT team. My neighbor across the street, Amanda Edwards, was in the freshman⁸ building where the shooting took place. She's been more private since then and finding comfort in writing and her piano.

(SOUNDBITE OF PIANO MUSIC)

G. GLASSMAN: Her close friend, Carmen Schentrup, was killed. She still vividly⁹ remembers seeing her in the hallway a few days before everything happened.

AMANDA EDWARDS: I remember coming out and seeing her. And, you know, she kind of slowed down a little because she saw me and she said, you know, hi. And I said hi. I remember saying goodbye. And that was the last time, you know, I saw her - at least alive.

G. GLASSMAN: Amanda says a lot of her friends don't plan on going back to school, at least on the first day it's back open.

EDWARDS: My dad said that, you know, if I ever get scared during the school day on Wednesday or after that that, you know, I'm fine with leaving early and stuff 'cause, I mean, what's the point of being at school if we're just freaking out half the time that there might be a school shooter again coming in?

G. GLASSMAN: I get it. I was anxious to go back even for a few hours. They let us come back and get our stuff. When the shooting happened, so many of us ran out without our phones and our backpacks. I actually felt relief getting everything back. I recorded the moment on my dad's phone.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

G. GLASSMAN: And I'm so happy. Everything's here - my phone, my wallet, my computer. Yay.

Everything may change tomorrow when we go back to school. I don't know if I'll stay this involved. On a personal level, all this political activity is helping me cope. Without all the activism going around the community, I'd still be in the background or sitting in bed. Some moments are easier than others, and it's hard to explain to people who haven't gone through this. I talked to my friend, Sawyer Garrity, about that.

What would you say now to another teenager who's feeling numb¹⁰?

SAWYER GARRITY: Like, someone who hasn't experienced...

G. GLASSMAN: Someone who hasn't experienced this.

GARRITY: OK. It doesn't feel like it could ever happen to you until it does. It still doesn't feel real even if it does happen to you.

G. GLASSMAN: I don't know what it will feel like tomorrow back at school. It might be good that we'll be busy all day and back together. But I know it will be hard just to walk on campus. For NPR News, I'm Gabe Glassman.

CHANG: That story was produced by Youth Radio.

1 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

5 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

6 insignificant   

adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的

参考例句：

• In winter the effect was found to be insignificant.在冬季，这种作用是不明显的。
• This problem was insignificant compared to others she faced.这一问题与她面临的其他问题比较起来算不得什么。

7 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

8 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

9 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

10 numb   

adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木

参考例句：

• His fingers were numb with cold.他的手冻得发麻。
• Numb with cold,we urged the weary horses forward.我们冻得发僵，催着疲惫的马继续往前走。