Mother of Parkland shooting victim pens op-ed: I need to be my daughter’s voice in the fight for gun control

The mother of a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student killed in the Florida school shooting last month has penned an op-ed vowing to be her daughter’s voice in the fight for gun control and school safety.

Lori Alhadeff’s piece was published in the The Washington Post on Thursday, just days before hundreds of thousands of people are expected at the “March for Our Lives” in D.C.

Alhadeff writes that her 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa Alhadeff, was “a special young girl,” a “leader” and “a fighter.”

“Now, it is my job to fight in her name — to end gun violence, to elect people who will stand up to the National Rifle Association and to make our communities safer,” Alhadeff writes.

{mosads}She writes that she plans to march Saturday in Washington, D.C., along with thousands of other students, including many from her daughter’s school, to demand lawmaker action on gun control.

“I say to our lawmakers: If you can’t do something about this disgraceful scourge of gun violence in our schools and across our country, you should not hold public office,” she writes. “It is your job to find answers. If you can’t, or won’t, let someone take your place.”

Alhadeff writes that she has created Make Schools Safe, an organization dedicated to preventing school shootings.

She adds that her daughter’s generation gives her “hope” beyond the “grief and outrage.”

“I stand with these students, in Alyssa’s honor, and I will cheer them on as they fight for much-needed change,” she writes. “It is on us, the students, the adults, the elected officials to make sure no one ever forgets what happened in Parkland.”