The black students from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, a Florida high-school where 17 kids were massacred last month, held a press conference to further discuss the impact of gun violence within America’s schools and communities.  However, these students made it clear that their message may be somewhat different from the messages we’ve been hearing from mostly white students at Marjorie Douglas who’ve made international headlines.

The black students, like 17-year-old Kai Koerber, in an impassioned speech told the mostly local press, that communities may want to have more police officers patrolling their schools, however these black students are not completely comfortable with the idea of increasing police presence.  Kai explained how it’s intimidating and that black students will face most of the consequences of an overmilitarized predominantly white school. Kai stated, “It’s bad enough we have to return with clear backpacks, should we also return with our hands up?” Another student emphasized that there is more that needs to be discussed when having talks about #MarchForOurLives “Conversations about gun violence have to include police violence.  Will the Same people who showed up for #MarchForOurLives show up for Stephon Clark,” asked Tyah-Amoy.

According to the Miami Herald, eleven percent of the 3,000 students at Marjorie Douglas are black, but we have barely seen them represented within the past few weeks as these students made headlines across the world.

For black students in schools across America, the solution to gun violence certainly is not more police presence, and that part of the equation needs to be a part of the national conversation when discussing #MarchForOurLives