Obama Era Project- Am History by Shelsea Carrenard

Summary

shelsea_carrenard — 2024-06-03 20:28:55 UTC

On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin was killed by one of his father's neighbors, George Zimmerman. Trayvon had been suspended from his new school for having traces of Marijuana in his bag and went to stay with his father and his girlfriend. Zimmerman lived in the same neighborhood and was on the neighborhood watch. He saw Trayvon, who had just come back from getting some snacks, and thought that this was suspicious. He had called 911 and said there was a suspicious looking teen in his neighborhood. It is important to note that the operator informed him to not follow Trayvon and let the police come investigate. Zimmerman pursued Trayvon and proceeded to question him. This escalated from an argument to them getting physical. After getting physical, Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon. After this, Zimmerman was only held for 5 hours, due to "lack of evidence". This caused tremendous outrage in the community.

Present-Day Connection

shelsea_carrenard — 2024-06-04 13:00:59 UTC

In the past few years, the black community has continued to face violence. Whether that is inside of the community or clashes with others. This has also been due to gun violence, even with police officers. In 2020, a black man, George Floyd, was murdered by officers after being accused of using a counterfeit bill. This continues to happen within the community. A lot of the time, black people could just be minding their business and people, whether it is a police officer or a regular citizen, and they get attacked just based on skin color. This has started to cause protests against the treatment of black people in the US. Even in recent protests, Trayvon's name was brought up as an example of the violence. In recent years, and even in the past, the black community continues to fight for their respect.

Summary

shelsea_carrenard — 2024-06-05 13:49:32 UTC

On December 14, 2012, Newton, Connecticut had seen violence they hadn't seen in over a decade. Adam Lanza, a former student of Sandy Hook Elementary, entered the school and started to shoot. It was a regular day at school. Lanza's morning started with him fatally shooting his mother. He did this by using his own mother's guns. He then went to Sandy Hook, and shot through the glass doors after they had been locked. This school had a pretty good security system, but this wasn't a situation they would have thought of. After he had shot through the door, he shot and killed the principal and other staff. He walked into a first grade classroom and thought he killed everyone. There was one survivor, a first grader, that played dead, then ran out of the building. Then in the next classroom, a teacher used her body to shield the kids in her class. Soon after the police arrived at the school and Lanza shot himself.

Present-Day Connection

shelsea_carrenard — 2024-06-05 14:15:44 UTC

Being a high school student and seeing this happen to elementary school students is truly scary and concerning. In the past few years, there have been school shooting threats which do concern a lot of Greenwich. Even in the neighboring towns and cities, there continue to be school shooting threats. This is something that needs to get under control, whether it is students joking or a serious threat. Some may believe that school shooting could be because of the gun use in the media. Regardless, this has been a problem in the US. There are many reasons that people shoot up in different places, but they can't be justified. Even in Lanza's case, peers and previous teachers said that he could have mental disorders, yet this still does not justify his actions.