The clear backpacks. Metal detectors. Lockdown procedures — sometimes just a drill, sometimes not.
It’s all part of what Indianapolis teens say they’re fed up with at school. All steps they’re told could help prevent gun violence-related tragedies in their buildings. But, none of it, the teens say, is enough to protect students from the threat of gun violence.
“Our school searches people’s backpacks, not just for drugs, but because of the threat of guns,” said Estelle Lutin, a sophomore at Herron High School. “Because of the fact that our system and our government can’t protect us, and so our schools have to do everything they can to try to do that but even they fail because they can’t stop an 18-year-old from buying a gun.”
For Lutin, gun violence is personal. The 16-year-old never got to meet her aunt who died in a shooting in Michigan before the teen was born.
It’s driven her to action, researching gun violence and advocating for changes, such as requiring mental health screenings and increasing the minimum age to legally own firearms.
“It’s just terrible. I don’t want to have to have my dad fear for me or fear for other people,” Lutin said. “My sister, who’s off in college — even she still has to fear about that stuff, even though she’s an adult, and that has definitely affected me.”
Hundreds of students like Lutin from Herron, Shortridge, North Central and Brebeuf high schools walked out of their classrooms Friday, Sept. 5, to protest gun violence. Many of them packed into IndyGo’s Red and Purple line buses to make their voices heard at the Indiana Statehouse.
It came as part of a national movement organized by the student-led gun violence prevention group, Students Demand Action, in response to the Annunciation Catholic School shooting on Aug. 27 in Minneapolis.
Two children died and more than a dozen others were injured in the gunfire. It’s led Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, to consider calling a special session to review tougher gun laws in his state.
Indianapolis students say they wish lawmakers here would take up similar conversations.
“There have been way too many cases of recent school shootings where it’s just another name on the news,” said Matthew Inabnitt, 15, a sophomore from Herron High. “I feel like if we put more attention to it, then we can actually make some change happen.”
Calls for permits, safe gun storage
Indiana loosened its gun laws three years ago when state legislators enacted a permitless carry law, meaning gun owners no longer need a permit to carry, conceal or transport their firearm within the state.
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Indiana had already possessed one of the least restrictive gun laws in the country. But Second Amendment advocates have argued for years that government actions, such as permitting, go against their constitutional rights.
“HEA 1296, which I’ve signed today, entrusts Hoosiers who can lawfully carry a handgun to responsibly do so within our state,” Gov. Eric Holcomb said in a statement at the time.
State Sen. Andrea Hunley, D-Indianapolis, a former IPS principal who took office after the 2022 permitless carry bill passed, spoke to students at the event.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Hunley told students from the Statehouse steps. “What we could do here as legislators in this building is we could make sure that people need a permit to carry a gun. We could make sure that people have to register their gun and all of their gun sales.”
Molly Reffett, 17, a senior with North Central’s Students Demand Action chapter, said she and her friends have been attending advocacy days at the Statehouse for years.
She says she’s become discouraged by Republican state senators who’ve repeatedly declined to meet with her group. She says she’s particularly interested in legislation that encourages safe gun storage.
“Usually, it’s just people who also agree with us that want to meet with us,” the teen said, “which is still a great experience but we obviously want to extend the reach not just to people who share our own beliefs.”
‘You have the power to bring about change’
State Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis, knows the effects of gun violence all too well.
He also spoke to students at the Students Demand Action rally sharing his personal story: His brother-in-law was killed 24 years ago in his family business.
“For our family who lost a loved one, this pain never goes away,” Qaddoura said. “Every single day becomes painful when we remember them and there’s an empty seat at your kitchen table that you cry every holiday that they’re not sitting with you, not enjoying their lives and not living the decent living that they deserve and have lived for the last 20-something years.”
Qaddoura’s youngest daughter went on to launch North Central’s Students Demand Action group and continues to train student advocates on a national scale.
Her dad told students not to get discouraged in their advocacy.
“Politicians are afraid of your voices, they are afraid of you calling them out, and they are afraid of you running for public office,” Qaddoura said. “You have the energy, you have the intellect, you have the power to bring about change.”
The League of Women Voters had a table on the Statehouse lawn and provided information about how to register to vote. Teens interested in learning more about Students Demand Action can text STUDENTS to 644-34.
Campbell Bell, 16, a junior from Shortridge, helped organize the rally in Indianapolis. The teen says she’s also scared that lawmakers might not listen, but finds encouragement in students coming together.
“This isn’t just a minute problem, it’s something that’s been going on in our lives since we entered these spaces,” Bell said. “I believe that our voices are powerful and that they should be willing to listen to us.”
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at carley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X @carleylanich.
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