ATLANTA — At the Georgia State Capitol, a student from Apalachee High School and members of the Apalachee family came together with lawmakers to demand action on school safety, and tougher laws for guns and safe storage.
While the community members gathered at the capitol, students at Apalachee High School staged a walkout to push for more safety regulations.
Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach was at the capitol, where those gathered said they want to be more proactive so no young person can get their hands on a gun in the first place, like what happened in September.
“The shooting started, the minutes that followed would feel like an eternity,” Isabel Trejo, an Apalachee High School senior, said. “In that moment, I felt responsible. I still do. Many of us do. I sat there frozen, terrified, unable to move, unable to help. If I had moved, have tried, I might have been next.”
The current Apalachee senior joined with others from her community, including the brother of 14-year-old Christian Angulo, another victim of the shooting carried out by Colt Gray.
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Layla Renee Contreras, an Apalachee alum with a sister still in school there, organized “Change for Chee” to push for reforms in the wake of the Apalachee shooting.
“We cannot only be reactive, we must be proactive. And that brings me to what is still missing from this plan,” Contreras said about a Republican comprehensive school safety bill introduced by House Speaker Jon Burns on Monday. “We cannot talk about school safety without talking about how firearms are stored.”
Democratic Rep. Michelle Au invited the group to the capitol to discuss their safety priorities. She praised the Republican-led bill but said it doesn’t do enough.
“How could a 14-year-old get access, unsupervised, to a gun?” Au asked at the event.
For Trejo, the response to the shooting needs to have more than just changes at schools.
“We must also have safe storage bills in place to prevent further tragedies,” Trejo said. “This tragedy could have been prevented if safe storage laws had been in place.”
Au said the Pediatric Safe Storage Act, or House Bill 1, has bipartisan support and was co-sponsored by a Republican. She hopes to get it passed during the 2025 legislative session.
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