My name is Ethan Palmer, and I am a founder and co-president of Make Our Schools Safe in Boca Raton. Over the past year, our chapter has been, and continues to be, successful in empowering South Florida youth to take tangible action to make our schools safe, whether it was working with the NFL Network to interview Allen Hurns about his involvement with MOSS or hosting a variety of fundraisers in Boca and Parkland.

Aside from media campaigns and fundraising, however, MOSS’ central goal is to be a platform on which people around the country can inspire change in their communities. As such, when we founded our chapter, our main goal was to bring safety reform directly to our school. And this past May, we had our first meeting with our school’s formerly faculty-only safety committee! As a result of the meeting, next year we’re bringing Stop The Bleed kits, safer spaces, and better locking devices to our school. We couldn’t have done any of this without Make Our Schools Safe.

For those of you who are looking to make your schools safer, I cannot stress enough the importance of giving your school administration an outline of the additions you’re looking to bring to your school as soon as possible. Reform can take a while, but don’t get discouraged. Be proactive, make a chapter, and seize your dreams!