Deanna Paul reports for the WaPo:
A vigil commemorating the victims of the STEM School shooting in Colorado ended in protest Wednesday evening after students said they refused to be used as pawns to promote gun control.
Hundreds attended the vigil -- students, teachers, activists and elected officials -- to honor Kendrick Castillo, the 18-year-old who was fatally shot on Tuesday at the STEM School Highlands Ranch in suburban Denver. But Castillo's classmates were moved to protest after invitees Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.) and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) spoke. Many of the teenagers perceived the speeches as politicians politicizing their trauma when they wanted their own voices heard.
Students stood and stormed out. Some clapped and united in chants, deriding what they saw as a "political stunt." The school parking lot quickly filled with teenagers, cursing at the press and holding backlit cellphones in the air.
"What happened at STEM is awful, but it's not a statistic. We can't be used for a reason for gun control. We are people, not a statement," said one student wearing a yellow Spartans shirt.Another teenager voiced similar frustrations, saying: "I thought this was about us, not about politics."
Good for the students. Regardless of where one stands on gun control (and CJLF takes no position on it), this was not the time or place to advocate for it.
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