A new documentary from PBS News Student Reporting Labs features young Americans from across the country talking about how gun violence has impacted them.
The film called Run, Hide, Fight: Growing up under the gun is not only about young people but was created by 14 student journalists reporting from five cities.
The documentary airs on WKAR HDTV November 14 at 10:30 p.m.
WKAR's Sophia Saliby spoke to Brianna and Alexis Schmidt, sisters and Michigan State University students who produced a segment for the documentary, about the project.
Interview Highlights
On working on the documentary
After talking to a lot of the students that we interviewed for this documentary, it was just nice to learn from their experiences what actions and words are most helpful for enacting change and what we can do to provide support for them. Because obviously, we weren't here during that time, but this is still a part of our community, and we really love it here and stuff, and we just wanted to figure out what would be most helpful as students here and as journalists telling their story.Brianna Schmidt
On the students who experienced the Oxford High School shooting and the Michigan State University shooting
I think that's a big part of what we want people to get out of the documentary, is that we shouldn't feel unsafe in school, and to have that happen just within a few years, twice to somebody is crazy. And it really emphasizes what Maya and Kylie were saying in the documentary, that we need change, and we need people to realize that these things that happen, it's not just like statistics, people have to deal with these effects for the rest of their lives.Alexis Schmidt
On whether young people will be the ones to provide solutions to gun violence
From what I've learned from working on this documentary, it's kind of going to have to be up to young people because we're the ones with these experiences, and there's such like a divide with what our parents and our grandparents grew up experiencing in school, and it's just so different for them. Our generation has grown up just doing these drills since we were in elementary school, constantly having to look for the exit in our buildings and stuff, and that's just something that adults might not have experienced. And so it's kind of harder for them to grasp the need for like this change in our communities.Brianna Schmidt
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: A new documentary from PBS features young Americans from across the country talking about how gun violence has impacted them.
The film called Run, Hide, Fight: Growing up under the gun, is not only about young people but was created by 14 student journalists reporting from five cities.
Sisters Brianna and Alexis Schmidt are Michigan State University students who produced a segment for the documentary. They join me now. Thank you for being here.
Brianna Schmidt: Thank you for having us.
Saliby: So Alexis, I want to start with you. How did you guys both get involved in this documentary?
Alexis Schmidt: So, we got involved with PBS News Student Reporting Labs in our junior year of high school, and after working a lot with them over the past few years and in our high school career, we knew we wanted to continue as we went to college.
So, they ended up reaching out to us last December to see if we'd be interested in joining the documentary and producing a segment about East Lansing being that they knew we just started attending Michigan State, and the community was recently affected by the February 13 campus shooting. So, we'd never really covered a topic this serious before, but we knew we wanted to take on this challenge because it was important to us and close to home.
Saliby: Brianna, like your sister mentioned, you started classes at Michigan State after the February 13 shooting. What was it like coming into that environment and meeting people who experienced this tragedy but not having been there for it?
Brianna Schmidt: It was definitely like a new perspective for us coming here after the shooting because a lot of our friends went here, and, we knew a lot of people in the area, but obviously we weren't here during it, so actually being on the campus and seeing how the campus was affected and the long-lasting impacts of gun violence on a community was something really eye opening.
And after talking to a lot of the students that we interviewed for this documentary, it was just nice to learn from their experiences what actions and words are most helpful for enacting change and what we can do to provide support for them. Because obviously, we weren't here during that time, but this is still a part of our community, and we really love it here and stuff, and we just wanted to figure out what would be most helpful as students here and as journalists telling their story.
Saliby: As part of the documentary, you talked to a student who was injured during the Oxford High School shooting in 2021 and then was on campus at Michigan State when the shooting happened here.
Can you speak to the kind of trauma some of these young people have with them as they come into adulthood after having experienced multiple acts of violence in their lives?
Brianna Schmidt: I know for Kylie, who was a survivor of the 2021 Oxford High School shooting and then came to Michigan State, and her freshman year was when the shooting happened on the MSU campus, she shared with us just how her daily life has changed due to those events.
And having that traumatic experience happened to you in high school and then going to college hoping for a fresh start and thinking it happened to you once, it won't happen again, and then it happened again is just a testament to how badly we need change in our system, and that's something that she shared with us. And it was just really motivating to see all that she had went through, but she's still remaining such a positive force in people's lives, and that's something that we were both really inspired by.
Alexis Schmidt: I think that's a big part of what we want people to get out of the documentary, is that we shouldn't feel unsafe in school, and to have that happen just within a few years, twice to somebody is crazy.
And it really emphasizes what Maya and Kylie were saying in the documentary, that we need change, and we need people to realize that these things that happen, it's not just like statistics, people have to deal with these effects for the rest of their lives.
Saliby: And your segment also features a student activist who created a gun safety awareness campaign on campus.
Do you think the solutions for ending gun violence are ultimately going to come from people in your generation? Maybe it's reporting, or maybe it's activism?
Brianna Schmidt: From what I've learned from working on this documentary, it's kind of going to have to be up to young people because we're the ones with these experiences, and there's such like a divide with what our parents and our grandparents grew up experiencing in school, and it's just so different for them.
Our generation has grown up just doing these drills since we were in elementary school, constantly having to look for the exit in our buildings and stuff, and that's just something that adults might not have experienced. And so it's kind of harder for them to grasp the need for like this change in our communities.
Alexis Schmidt: Yeah, I just think it goes back to the fact that a lot of people don't really understand how big of an issue it is until they experience it. And the people that are mainly experiencing gun violence are young people like in today's world. So, I think adults definitely can, I would assume that none of them would want their loved ones to have to go through an experience like this and live with it for the rest of their lives. But I think that it's harder for them to start that change, because most of them haven't been through it themselves yet. So, I think this change definitely is going to be led by young people.
Saliby: Alexis and Brianna Schmidt are Michigan State University students who helped produce the PBS documentary, Run, Hide, Fight: Growing up under the gun. Thank you both for being here.
Brianna Schmidt: Thank you so much for having us.
Alexis Schmidt: Thank you.
Saliby: The documentary airs on WKAR HD on November 14 at 10:30pm. It's available to watch now on the PBS NewsHour YouTube channel.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
