Revere High School’s (RHS’s) Students Demand Action (SDA) club hosted the Middleground event to promote awareness about gun control, by inviting students to a discussion and asking them stimulating questions.
On March 5 of 2026, students gathered in the cafeteria to discuss various questions SDA had prepared.
SDA is a club that “demands action” about gun violence, as the name suggests. Senior Gabriela Iler served as president of SDA for the 2025-2026 school year.
“Students Demand Action is a national gun violence prevention organization. . . . We aim to reduce gun violence by pressuring lawmakers to pass common-sense gun laws, help our communities by promoting safe storage and civic engagement and honoring victims of gun violence through our wear-orange initiative. . . . We are a diverse group of people across the political spectrum with the common goal of making our communities safer,” Iler said.
SDA’s main goal as a club is to promote gun safety and lessen violence; however, this is not always the focus of Middleground. In past years, they have covered AI’s effect on the environment, affirmative action and foreign intervention, as well as others. While the Middleground event’s topic varies from year to year, the general premise and goals of the event always stay the same.
“Middleground is a school-wide discussion about a contentious topic. The goal is to have people share different viewpoints and let everyone form their own opinions based on respectful discussion and the presented research,” Iler said.
This happens by having students sit in groups in the cafeteria so they could discuss the question among their peers. Andrew Iler, who was elected president of SDA for the 2026-2027 school year, noted how Middleground flowed.
“People at the event would sit down and talk about it, and then the table would come up with . . . an agreement and then one person from that table would share their ideas,” Iler said.
Each year, SDA prepares questions under a certain topic. While it is not always concerning gun control, this year it was, where questions implored participants to debate if gun restrictions should be increased. Luke Karwowski, the elected vice president for SDA for this coming school year, noticed how people came to agree or found a “middleground” in their discussions.
“This one wasn’t as controversial as other years because it was a pretty common consensus that we should increase gun restrictions, but the aim is just to come to . . . a general consensus on an overall controversial issue,” Karwowski said.
For some like Gabriela Iler, it is enjoyable getting to see people participate and find a middleground.
“My favorite part of Middleground is finding students who disagree with each other and watching them consider changing their opinions,” Iler said.
Before Middleground could start, there was some work to be done. All the questions that SDA asked the school, SDA needed to brainstorm and discuss first.
“The whole club brainstormed topics together, then the board picked firearm regulation as our topic. I (as president) made a slideshow with background information and facts about gun violence and firearm laws. Then, I presented the slideshow to the club and got feedback about which questions to include or delete. The other members thought about their opinions on the questions so they could help facilitate discussions at their tables,” Iler said.
There are certain issues that arise during Middleground, because it relies on everyone’s participation, not just SDA’s.
“The biggest challenge is getting the initial conversation to start . . . a lot of the time it is a struggle to get people wanting to talk about it, because sometimes you’re sitting with people that you don’t know,” Karwowski said.
Each year, SDA hosts this Middleground event. Next year, SDA will continue with Andrew Iler as their new president.
