Interviews

Weekly Report 03/20/2018 to 03/26/2018

Last week, I made quite a bit of progress on my final product. At the beginning of the week, I met with my mentor to film her interview for my documentary, and then later I met with the FISD School Board Trustee, Mr. Bryan Dodson, and President, Mr. John Classe at the CTE Center to film their interviews as well. These interviews were very insightful and provided me with new ideas for contacts and further independent research.

With my mentor’s interview, I was shocked to find out that she had been shot in college by a random sniper on the road. This made it even more confusing for me to learn that she is still a staunch supporter of gun rights and the second amendment, although she does believe in better regulations and hiring retired veterans to protect schools rather than arming teachers. I was fascinated to hear her opinions on the gun control debate since she has been personally affected in such a huge way by gun violence, and this prompted me to plan for conducting more independent research on the easy, illegal accessibility to guns. There are many avoidable deaths and injuries that result from guns when they are not regulated to be kept away from children or accidentally wind up in the hands of criminals, so I am trying to find more statistics on these accidental injuries compared to the statistics on actual uses of guns for self defense. That seems to be the biggest argument for why guns are necessary, so I would like to compare the negative impacts with the positive, protective uses of guns through numbers.

In addition, the interviews with Mr. Dodson and Mr. Classe provided me with additional contacts to reach out to, such as Mr. Kevin Haller, an expert on FISD safety procedures, and a plan to contact the Frisco Police Department for their take on the mass shootings occurring around the country. Throughout these interviews, I have started to truly enjoy creating my final product. After realizing that my topic was not for me, I was afraid that the rest of the year might not be as enjoyable since it would still be delving into the law. However, this project has allowed me to be creative and also to learn more about a very pressing issue in the United States. Using my artistic side to film the visual parts of the documentary and my intellectual side to find interesting interviewees, asking them thought-provoking questions has allowed me to be creative while continuing to research and learn more about the law and politics.