PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- A group of high school students held a debate this month on the subject of gun legislation.
Students Speaking for Our Lives was formed in February after the Parkland School Shooting in Florida. Leeza Kopaeva and Ingrid Ansel-Mullen were two of the founding members of the group. Both were attending Waynflete High School in Portland at the time of the Parkland shooting and decided to start a movement in their own school, organizing walk outs and marches. As time passed the girls noticed that the focus on school shootings started to disappear. It's why they are committed now more than ever to making schools safer.
"Maybe there's something we can do here, maybe this doesn't have to be the end because it seemed like the walk out and the march was going to be the end and what can I do afterwards," said Kopaeva.
The students decided that instead of talking with politicians, they would give politicians the option to talk to them. US Senate Candidates, Independent Senator Angus King, Republican Erik Brakey and Democrat Zak Ringelstein, were invited to answer questions that Students Speaking For Our Lives came up with about gun legislation in a debate style.
"We're still afraid to go to school in the fall and plenty of other kids are too and I haven't heard of any legislatures trying to do something to make sure that we are safer and make sure guns aren't getting in the hands of people who shouldn't have them," said Kopaeva.
Brakey and Ringelstein both attended the debate held inside the auditorium of Portland High School, but Senator King was unable to attend because of a schedule conflict. The answers and politics in the room were seldom the same, but that was expected by Students Speaking For Our Lives. The moderators were just happy to finally get answers to their questions after being told that their efforts won't make a difference.
"If you think that something is fundamentally wrong with the system that you're living in, you have the power to try to address that and you have the power to try to remedy that," said Ansel-Mullen.
Students Speaking For Our Lives also plans on organizing a debate about gun legislation with Maine's Gubernatorial Candidates.