The 14-year-old Year 9 student said she felt extremely proud to have placed third in the competition held at Marist College on March 16.

Georgie delivered a speech on history repeating itself, and focused on gun laws.

Through her speech, she put herself in the shoes of the many students in America who faced their greatest fear, as well as the shooter, and spoke from their perspectives.

“It was empowering to talk about it and I felt like it was something that should be talked about.” Georgie said

“[Following the speech,] I actually had a girl come up to me crying about it, and an English teacher came up to me and told me he’s going to teach his class my speech.”

Georgie has participated in public speaking since Year 5.

“I love that I can tell other people my opinions and maybe if I help them see from a different perspective, I can change the world that way,” she said. 

Read Georgie’s speech below.

‘I’m a student at Columbine high school scared for my life, my heart erratic and my legs faltering as I try to run out of the cafeteria, but it’s too late and I’m crushed by the onslaught of fellow teenagers and teachers. A bomb goes off, one bang after another. I’m crying, thoughts in my head immediately going to my family. I could have done something with my life. Cured cancer or helped sick kids. Instead I hide in the corner but I black out. As the smoke clears there are 13 dead and a frontier of carnage left in the wake of two 18-year-old boys.

History repeating itself.

I’m a child at Sandy Hook Elementary, cowering behind my desk as Adam Lanza, a 20-year-old with a bright future ahead of him, armed with three semi-automatic guns kills 20 of my friends aged four to seven, and six of my teachers, not understanding what was happening yet but the screaming and banging drenches me with dread. My teacher is murmuring a prayer, as 26 pairs of wide eyes stare at her, asking her silently what to do, but even a women that we look up to was crying and it confused us. I squeezed my eyes closed, my hands on my ears and my chest pumping. I wish I had my mum. I wished I had my dad. I wished that this was just a nightmare with the boogeyman under my bed. But the boogeyman was in my school. I tremble closer to my peers, children I have grown up with as the wooden door is flung open and a spin drift of bullets rain in.

History repeating itself.

I’m the shooter at Stoneman Douglas High School, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, armed with a AR-15, a gun used in war, hailing bullets into my old high school, a stench of blood and smoke in the air. I was tactical, using my knowledge of the school. I pulled the fire alarm, and slowly the kids came out like ants following one another. My vision clouded and my body went on a sort of automatic mode. I don’t know what was going threw my head but adrenaline was going threw my body as I pressed the trigger again and again and again into the hallway of the unsuspecting. It was Valentine’s Day, a day of love but now for the kids and parents and teachers I have hurt, it will be a day of death and agony. 17 dead. The first thing that reporters say is that I’m mentally ill, yet nothing about how I got the gun in my hand at a local Walmart with no mental health check or background search at such a tender age.

Since the start of 2018 there have been eight school shootings in America. There are calls for action. Maybe something gets introduced in Congress. The debate goes back and forth for a bit. Then people move on, usually after less than a week or two, and so there’s eventually another shooting. It is an endless cycle of ruination and slaughter.

Donald Trump tweeted that teenagers should report people like Nikolas, blaming the kids for havoc that he could have stopped, but even after being reported over 20 times nothing happened. The NRA, or the National Rifle Association, is buying him out but most importantly buying out innocent lives. If what you want is a leader that puts a price tag on people, then count me out.

Your prayers and thoughts aren’t enough for the parents that have to bury their children at eight years old, a life ahead of them that was cruelly taken away by a bullet because they sought an education.

What’s worse is that over a dozen of the family members of the Florida shooting have received death threats because of their rise against guns. They are grieving for their loss and getting nothing in return but hate. Mrs Schimmoeller, a wheelchair bound teacher of the Florida shooting went back in her first day and the first thing she said to her class with a shaking voice and a look of incredible dread, was that if a school shooting ever happened again that she would do her best to save her children and that they should leave her behind.

Her stomach sank at the idea, but she wasn’t able-bodied like the other teachers.

Slowly, yet quietly, a student raised her hand and said, “Miss, we already agreed we will carry you.”

Why do high school kids, kids my age, have to tell a teacher that no man gets left behind in war?

Since the Port Arthur massacre in April 1996, we haven’t had one mass shooting thanks to John Howard, who had to wear a bullet-proof vest at rallies and protests, and took the initiative to buy back our guns. So, I’m not saying that we need to get rid of guns because we already have – I’m saying write a letter to Congress, make an Instagram post, raise awareness, and most importantly, don’t forget, because when we forget, it’s just history repeating itself. We need to stand up to guns like the children stood up for their teacher. One man is not an island.

History repeating itself.’