Over spring break, I was privileged to witness students from my hometown of Davenport participate in the National School Walkout, marching with thousands of young people across the U.S. to advocate for safer schools.

While many protests specifically called for gun control, demonstrations at Davenport high schools aligned themselves with a general message of school safety. Organizers of the march at North High tweeted, “We are not fighting the 2nd amendment or pushing gun control at all, we are advocating for more ALICE drills, teacher and counselor resources to treat those with mental health issues.” An organizer at West High told reporters, “We wanted to focus on this uniform message here of safety and coming together as one.”

we are not pushing any sort of political agenda. we are not fighting the 2nd amendment or pushing gun control at all, we are advocating for more ALICE drills, teacher and counselor resources to treat those with mental health issues. never again qc is not a political movement.

— NHS NeverAgain (@NorthWalkout) March 12, 2018

But despite the careful decision to not talk about guns, adults were quick to politicize and dismiss the students’ efforts on Facebook: “this is an agenda for banning guns”; “brainwashed liberal puppets is all they are”; “go home and shut up.” And a countermovement called Walk Up, Not Out has gone viral on social media; the original photo tells students to “just be nice!”

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All of these responses — even the well-intentioned Walk Up, Not Out — deny the harsh reality that the post-Columbine generation has grown up with. A day after the Parkland massacre, Fox News journalist Shepard Smith emotionally listed all 25 of them since. School shootings, though rare in comparison to other acts of gun violence, are permeated in the earliest memories of American young people. Our grandparents had duck and cover drills during the Cold War. We have ALICE drills preparing us for an active shooter.

At least, those are the kinds of drills and other safety measures students from my hometown were demonstrating for more of. And it’s not as if they wouldn’t have been justified in talking about guns. In 2017, Davenport police responded to 333 shots-fired incidents. In May, a student who went to their high school was shot and killed.

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Nationally, school walkout participants have been dismissed as the media’s “political human shields” by Daily Wire Editor Ben Shapiro. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson said, “It’s wrong to exploit [students], which, by the way, is exactly what is being done to them today, what the left is doing, and has always done — from Mao’s Red Guards to now.”

So I have to ask: What exactly is the proper way for students to fight for their lives? How are they supposed to not only make themselves heard but be taken seriously as more than political pawns? Young people are often decried for just being on their phones all the time. But when they’re engaged, they’re doing it wrong — even if they don’t push the dreaded gun control.

I’m proud to be a part of a generation that cares what happens to them and wants better not only for themselves but their children. I want to believe the adults who are so averse to their voices want the same.