Emma González
After surviving the worst high school shooting in American history, this student channeled her grief into activism.
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FILE - In this March 24, 2018 file photo, Emma Gonzalez, a survivor of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., closes her eyes and cries as she stands silently at the podium for the amount of time it took the Parkland shooter to go on his killing spree during the "March for Our Lives" rally in support of gun control in Washington. Last year’s shooting at a Florida high school sparked a movement among a younger generation angered by gun violence and set the stage for a significant shift in America’s gun politics. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Emma González was a high school student in Parkland, Florida when on Valentine’s Day 2018, a mass shooter killed 17 people at her school. It was the worst high school shooting in American history.
González survived and channeled her grief into activism. She quickly became a prominent gun control advocate. With other survivors, she started the political action committee Never Again MSD and organized the 2018 March for Our Lives protest in Washington, D.C., where she gave a powerful speech that brought her into the media limelight.
The daughter of Cuban immigrants, González grew up in Parkland and served as president of the high school’s gay-straight alliance. Now a college student, Emma Gonzalez continues her activism on Twitter, where her handle is @Emma4Change and she has 1.6 million followers.
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