The Teen Council at the Los Feliz Branch Library chose to explore violence in schools for our Teens Leading Change (TLC) project. While brainstorming a topic, members of our group spoke about an incident that occurred on campus at school. The conversation led to a full-group discussion about general safety at school, and it sparked our curiosity to learn more about what we could do to prevent future instances of on-campus violence. This issue is critical and is becoming exceedingly relevant, with incidents of school violence on the rise and frequent lockdowns at schools throughout the country.

According to CNN, every year since 2021 has set a record on the number of school shootings in the nation, a shocking statistic that worries many of the teens on our council. Gun violence in schools specifically has been a major topic of political discussion as officials struggle to contend with the rising rate of gun violence in the US. To learn more about our fellow teenagers' experiences with violence at their schools, we will be sending out a detailed form that asks in-depth questions about this topic, including how secure they feel at school and how a lack of safety may affect their education. We hope to share our findings with education community members to ensure that our peers remain safe during school hours.

—Written by Stella S.

Stella S. is a junior at Marlborough School in Los Angeles. She is very passionate about mental health issues and volunteers at a suicide hotline in Los Angeles called Teen Line. She knows that mental health plays a significant role in gun violence in schools, so she wants to continue to do her part to address these issues before they escalate to extreme circumstances.

The Los Feliz Branch Library's Teens Leading Change Project focuses on student perceptions of safety in their schools. This blog post introduces our project and what we hope to gain from it.

—Emily Appleton, Young Adult Librarian, Los Feliz Branch Library

The Teens Leading Change initiative has funded and launched 52 projects across 60 branches with over 600 participants, including 9 projects across 10 branches that are happening now! Go to lapl.org/teens/tlc for more information.