This year, Wayland High School welcomed the Make our Schools Safe (MOSS) club to the school community. MOSS is a national organization that is represented at 16 schools across the nation. The club was brought to Wayland by freshman Mackenzie Morris who serves as the club’s president and freshman Sofia DiCarlo who serves as the vice president.

MOSS was founded by Lori and Ilan Alhadeff, who lost their 14 year old daughter Alyssa, in the shooting at 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, which resulted in 17 total deaths. Since 2018, there have been 132 school shootings in the United States, which averages to about 26 shootings per year – a number that hasn’t seemed to decrease as time goes on. The goal of the club is to educate and create legislation to make schools across the U.S. better equipped to react if a shooting does occur.

“MOSS is about tailoring to each school individually [to] make each school safer and make the students feel safer in their school community,” Morris said.

Morris and DiCarlo want to unify the Wayland community to make each individual feel secure every time they step in a classroom. Another main inspiration for this club’s implementation at Wayland High School is Morris’ personal connection to the club, as she knows one of the survivors of the 2018 Parkland shooting.

“My family friend’s daughter was a part of the [Parkland] shooting,” Morris said. “Luckily she was in the classroom next door, so she was okay, but she heard the gunshots and [it] was very traumatizing [for her].”

Following the Parkland shooting, one of the main goals of the MOSS organization is to pass legislation called Alyssa’s Law. Proposed by Alyssa’s parents, this piece of legislation addresses the issue of response time by law enforcement. In many cases by the time police arrive at the scene of a school shooting, it is too late. Alyssa’s Law calls for silent panic alarms to be placed in classrooms to quicken law enforcement responses to emergency calls. So far, Alyssa’s Law has been passed in three states: New York, Florida and New Jersey. As the only MOSS leaders in the state, Morris and DiCarlo want to help expand this legislation into Massachusetts.

“[Starting the club as freshmen] gives us more time to accomplish goals,” Morris said. [Alyssa’s] mom feels that she would still be alive if there were silent panic buttons in the classroom, and [her mom] is trying to get it passed in all these schools. That is our four year goal and I think starting as freshmen it gives us a lot of time to accomplish that.”

Wayland is the first town in Massachusetts to implement MOSS at a high school. Morris and Dicarlo hope to expand the reach of MOSS to other schools in the state and hopefully inspire others in the same way they were by the mission of the organization.

“I think there are 20 other clubs in the United States, so it’s not that big, but Mr. Bonfiglio is our club advisor and we [all agree] want to get more schools in Massachusetts to make these clubs,” Morris said.

In most cases, taking over a club as freshmen – let alone implementing the first one in the state – seems like a difficult task for some. However, Morris and DiCarlo view this as an opportunity to achieve their goals across a longer timeframe.

In addition to aiding in the future of the nationwide goals of MOSS, each individual school has specific goals of its own to cater to the specific needs of its student body. Morris and DiCarlo want to ensure that they properly address issues concerning the Wayland community in the club over the course of their high school years.

“In Miami, at their high schools they’re trying to use the club to get something called ‘Stop the Bleed Kits,’ which are if there was a school shooter and someone started bleeding out, it’s stuff in a first aid kit to help them,” Morris said. “I think in Wayland one of our number one concerns could be about mental health, so we [want to] bring in a mental health specialist speaker.”

At this year’s Club Fair, MOSS had a table where students could sign-up using a QR code to join the club and get information about meetings. Morris and DiCarlo hope to welcome many new members throughout the year and are happy with the turnout.

“Everyone was really nice and supportive of us at Club Fair,” DiCarlo said.

Similar to most clubs, meetings are a time to plan, organize and discuss issues pertaining to the mission of the specific club. In the upcoming year, MOSS plans to hold most of its meetings to address both the national goals of the organization in addition to creating plans catered towards the Wayland community.

Overall, the Wayland MOSS Club is dedicated towards helping its school community in feeling secure in their place of education and keeping the legacy of school shooting victims, such as Alyssa, living on for infinity.

“It’s a great way to get involved in our community and make our school safer for everyone,” DiCarlo said.