During a recent book talk presented by the Academy for Critical Incident Analysis at John Jay College, on March 5, New York Times best-selling author Dave Cullen provided insight on his new book Parkland and how the survivor story emerging from the tragedy gave birth to a movement. According to Cullen, the normal pattern of reactions following a mass shooting are usually shock, an offering of thoughts and prayers, and then inaction by politicians, but “these Parkland kids changed the conversation,” said Cullen. “They went from shooting survivors to activist.”

Cullen had seen this type of tragedy play out from the front lines before. He notably covered the Columbine High School massacre extensively over the course of ten years from the day it happened in 1999 to 2009. Throughout the ten years he worked on his book Columbine, he researched the killers, their motives, met with parents, and documented the survivors. His proximity and knowledge of the mass shooting and its aftermath garnered Cullen a reputation. “I’ve become the mass murder guy on TV news after covering these horrible events,” said Cullen. He’s often tapped to provide commentary on mass shootings, so when tragedy struck at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, CNN asked Cullen to come on the air, less than 24 hours after the shootings. While at CNN’s studio, Cullen watched David Hogg, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, being interviewed by a reporter. Hogg’s plea got Cullen’s and the world’s attention. “We are children. You are the adults. You need to take some action and play a role. Work together. Come over your politics and get something done,” said Hogg. Cullen says that in that very moment, he knew something different was happening down in Parkland and it was a story he knew he wanted to cover.

A Movement To End Gun Violence
In the days that followed the tragedy, several of the Parkland students including Hogg and Emma González —who had become household names due to their extensive media coverage—would take action and form March For Our Lives. Cullen says it was Jaclyn Corin, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and co-founder of March For Our Lives, who would convince the group to invite him to their secret headquarters to document their process. Cullen says what he witnessed was the birth of a movement. He saw first-hand how the Parkland students quickly organized, created a supportive group of peers, and brainstormed ideas for advocacy and partnerships. Their work ethic and process surprised Cullen. “When I got a tour of their secret headquarters—and its secret because these kids actually get death threats—I had the chance to interview Matt Deitsch, Chief Strategist for March For Our Lives, and he told me ‘Let’s go back into the writers room.’ My response was, ‘Writers room?’ And without skipping a beat he says, ‘Do you think this stuff writes itself?’ I was blown away,” said Cullen. “I had seen their great tweets, their consistent clever responses, the memes and videos they were posting, and here I was thinking they were just whipping all of these things out of thin air but they weren’t. They were actively working on them. They were operating like a primetime show writer’s room. They have a studio and a staff, and they’re scripting stuff.” That approach was purposeful, said Cullen. “They have to respond to big groups like the NRA, and so in order to effectively do that, they have to respond in a similar fashion. They have to strategize.” He added, “One of the reasons March For Our Lives has been so successful is because there’s a pool of really talented people, all working together, who are producing these powerful messages.”

Cullen says while Hogg and González have become the face of the movement, other members of the group, including Corin, are among its quiet heroes. He says it’s Corin who is really the hero of his book Parkland. “She’s running this movement, which is why I wanted to write the book. I wanted to write her story, she wasn’t covered by the media at all,” said Cullen. “I wanted to tell the stories of all those that weren’t being interviewed by reporters.” In total, Cullen’s Parkland covers 25 members of the March For Our Lives movement.

A United Front
One of the more profound things to come from March for Our Lives, said Cullen, was the full on integration of other groups from underrepresented communities into the movement, like the Peace Warriors from Chicago’s west side, as well as the Parkland students’ own black classmates at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who stated they felt ignored by the media when talking about the tragedy. “That came about because the Parkland kids felt really awful about how much the media paid attention to shootings when it involved affluent white kids in suburban areas, and they should pay attention, its horrifying,” said Cullen, “but what the Parkland kids realized was that black and brown kids in America are dying from gun violence at a rate 10 times higher than white kids, and the media was paying little to no attention to them.”

Cullen told the audience that the groups came together at González’s house and there they discussed the atrocities they had lived through, often taking breaks because the horror of it all would become too much. Cullen explained that it was during one of these breaks that members had an “aha” moment. “They realized that what they were doing, the work they were putting out, was healing them,” said Cullen. “That’s when D’Angelo McDade, Executive Director of the Peace Warriors, pulled out a dog tag with the words ‘Principle Number Four’ on it. It stood for Martin Luther King’s Six Principles of Non-Violence which states ‘Suffering can educate and transform.’ What the Parkland kids realized was that what they were going through, if channeled properly, could actually help educate and transform the world.” Dr. King’s Six Principles of Non-Violence became the model the group would adopt. “The six principles became the bedrock of how these kids would lead their movement,” said Cullen. “And it was really the first time, too, that they saw they were part of something bigger.”

The group’s tireless effort would lead to the March For Our Lives protest—among the largest student-led protest in the U.S. since the Vietnam war—just five weeks after the Parkland tragedy.

A Powerful Messenger
When asked by an audience member why the response from the Parkland kids has been so impactful when compared to the ones that preceded it, Cullen said, “It was a lot of factors but most notably, it was the messenger.” Cullen explained the Parkland kids knew they had to speak up, acting as advocates, and proclaiming, “Not one more.” They had to be the face of the movement to end gun violence in America. “For many years, the parents of victims were the face of the movement. Parents are powerful figures. You feel their pain, their sadness, you’re outraged at what they have gone through, you feel compassion for them, but what you don’t feel is fear. But when you see David Hogg and Emma González, or any of those Parkland kids, a shutter goes through you. These are the faces of the targets and they look and sound just like your kids. These are the faces of the kids who will die if nothing changes. That was a real game changer.”