[cheers and applause] this is "nightline." >> tonight, vax facts. the national health debate splitting families apart. >> there are children who will decide what go thena their bodies. the ohio teenager fighting for his shot. overruling his own anti-vax mom. plus, parkland one year later. taking sdeep grief into the drum beat of change. turning mourners into activists. we meet one father whose life has been turned upside down by

and number one is coming up in just 60 seconds. is comin

good evening. we begin here tonight with a small group of parents having a major impact, disregarding proven science by refusing to vabs nate their children. the standard dividing communities and families like never before with deign ruanger consequences. >> high school senior ethan lindenburger, vaccinated against his mother's wishes. >> it is a topic of discussion across the country. >> a teenager's decision to go against his anti-vax mother. thrusting their family into a firy, national debate. >> my decision was not only the best decision for myself but to protect myself and other people. >> reporter: 18 year old ethan's choice has captured the nationts

attention, as a measles outbreak in washington state has prompted renewed calls for mandatory vaccinations. >> they are stronger and more emboldened than they ever have been. >> false information, myth and misconception always exists in medicine, and we all fear what we don't know and we don't understand. but the reality is, in medical and science, we have to make clinical decision and policy decisions. that affect public health based on fact. >> reporter: despite studies that show vaccinations are safe, she chooses not to vaccinate her children out of fear. >> i am against immunizations, and i have seen people i have met or people that are close to me that have had bad reactions to the vaccines. it scared me. >> reporter: but ethan began questioning that decision. >> i had grown-up hearing i had

not been vaccinated because it's bad for me and they are bad. once i started looking into what the scientific community at large has supported, that's when i started to see that my situation was an a little more unique. >> reporter: the teen turned to reddit to see whether his peers could provide insight, writing my parents think vaccines are some kind of government scheme. i've had countless arguments, but because of their beliefs, i've never been vaccinated for anything. god knows how i'm still alive. >> i thought i'd get good answers from people who had the similar thinking i had. it blew up. i've had people contact me that are in a similar situation where they want to pursue vaccinations and their parent or authority figure doesn't think it's right. >> it does seem to be a growing trend, just over the last few years. more and more of these teens are starting to come of age. >> only a few days after the reddit post i went through that and pursued vaccinations at the

public health department. >> my first reaction was fear that he might have a bad reaction to it. >> reporter: despite his mother's reservations, she respected her son's choice. >> i think it's great he has taken it upon himself to research and find what he feels is best for him. it is not what i agree with. >> reporter: supporters of the anti-vax movement feel they can have dangerous consequences. such as causing autism, a myth with roots in a debunked 1998 study. >> the autism experts retracted it. really everyone in science and medicine has accepted that we were taken down an incorrect path. >> reporter: popularized by the lakes of jenny mccarthy, robert f. kennedy jr. and robert de niro, it's become more mainstream and it's having an impact. >> what we've seen recently is a resurgence of infectious

diseases that were effectively eradicated. >> reporter: just last month, washington declared a state of emergency after a measles outbreak in clark county where 7.9% of children had gotten exemptions from vaccine. >> it can spread like wildfire. >> we've had 53 confirmed cases of measles. ve of them we're unable to verify immunization status. it's basically a vaccine-preventible disease. and we're seeing it in an unvaccinated population. >> reporter: prior to the outbreak, washington had been among the more permissive states allowing parents to opt out of vaccines. one of 18, including oregon that allow parents to forego the vaccines. lawmakers are now considering bills that would prohibit

non-medical exemptions from vaccines, prompting hundreds in opposition to the bill. >> when you take away a person's freedom in medical choice, mandating vaccines for education, that is coercion. >> reporter: proponents of mandatory vaccinations point to california where state lawmakers removed personal belief vaccine exemptions after a outbreak in disney land sickened 147 people in 2015. >> i'm going to make you peanut butter and jelly. >> reporter: this family was behind the push for new legislation. when their son was 2 1/2, he was diagnosed with leukemia. >> we were in the hospital, the first time for 87 days. three and a half years of treatments, 157 nights in the hospital overall, 50 surgeries. >> reporter: his immune system unable to handle vaccines.

like the one that prevents measles. >> if your immune system isn't strong enough for a vaccine then you can't get them. they're too harmful. >> reporter: they were shocked to learn nearly 7% of the children at their elementary school were not vaccinated due to personal belief exemption. >> that was the risk we faced every day, that one of these diseases would get our son sick and he might die. >> reporter: going to school would put their son's life at risk. >> i'm talking about the people with personal belief exemptions. they believe they are bad, so they chose or choose not to vaccinate their children. >> it's just not realistic for a parent to say i'm not going to vaccinate my child. not only is their child at risk, but other people around that child are at risk, and that becomes, then, a public health issue. >> we went up to sacramento.

and lobbied for a bill, and it was getting kids vaccinated. >> reporter: they went on a mission to keep others from experiencing the same fear. >> thank you for making sure that kids like me don't, don't get sick at school. >> reporter: it was a success. the new law passed with bipartisan support, eliminating exemptions due to personal beliefs. >> ayes 46, nos 30. sb 277 passes. >> i was excited and happy. >> reporter: this week, rhett celebrates five years of being cancer free and has a very personal message for parents. >> i'd say i think that you should get your kids vaccinated for not only your kid's sake but everybody's sake.

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and we're back now with a difficult american anniversary, the parkland massacre took place one year ago this valentine's day, transforming many mourners into activists. for them, the losses are still fresh. may co-anchor, juju chang with more. >> i'm a dad.

i was a dance dad. this is the room my daughter used to dance in. i expected to continue watching my daughter dance, to go to competitions. over the years, i've just, this room has been a part of my life. you know, all those dreams that i had as a dad for my daughter, they started in this room. >> reporter: those dreams, to watch his child's hopes realized, were ripped from fred guttenberg's hands one year ago. >> 17 dead after a shooting rampage inside a florida high school. >> reporter: it was a scene we had hoped we'd never seen again, this time in marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida. >> i took book and held it up like this.

it was a defensive measure and helped may fe helped me feel a little better. he kept shooting through the rectangular window. >> reporter: in total, 17 lives cut short, three faculty members, 14 students, fred's daughter one of them. barely 24 hours after her murder, he took to the podium at a vigil. >> jamie was such a special kid. all of the kids here are. and i just went up and started letting it loose. what is unfathomable is that jamie took a bullet and is dead. i, i don't know what i do next. >> reporter: his first steps in a search for new purpose. >> but i can tell you, don't tell me there's no such thing as

gun violence. it happened in parkland! >> i remember saying that night, this time they messed with the wrong community and the wrong dad. >> reporter: in the year that followed, fred became one of many parkland parents and students who turned their grief into a drum beat of change. >> your comments this week and those of our president have pathreatical pathetically weak. >> reporter: becoming accidental activists. and perhaps forever changing the debate over gun violence. today, the students behind the march for our lives rally are holding steadfast in their mission for common sense gun reform. >> we've got a main office. >> reporter: jaclyn and ryan showed us inside their headquarters, a tiny office that spawned a nationwide movement. >> this is a photo from the march on the 24th.

>> we're little people over there. >> we were that dot. >> and the fact that we're here talking to you almost a year later, and we're still going and growing means the world. because people still care. >> reporter: their first steps as activists came days after the shooting. >> i want to thank you guys for coming out. i set this trip up in a matter of 48 hours. >> reporter: jaclyn led a group of florida students to the capital. a student-organized movement they called never again. demanding more than thoughts and prayers from state lawmakers. >> what is your personal stance on weapons like the ar-15? >> it's a head scratcher where we are, so it's going to be a debate. >> reporter: but within a month, action in florida and a partial win for gun control advocates. governor rick scott signed a law that increased funding for

school security and raised the legal age to buy an assault weapon to 21. >> florida is a state that is really a nra stronghold, yet, very rapidly, they took action. i've been studying gun violence and our response to that for about 30 years. i've never seen such swift and dramatic action. >> welcome to the revolution. >> reporter: but the students weren't satisfied. on march 24th last year, a mere since weeks after the shooting they led a rally in the nation's capital where hundreds of thousands of amassed at what is said to be the largest protest against gun violence in u.s. history. >> this is what's happening in our country and around the world today. >> i am here to acknowledge the african american girls whose lives don't make the front page.

>> i learned how to duck from bullets before i learned how to read! >> they made this an inclusive movement, a movement not about reducing shootings in schools exclusively. really an expansion of youth activism more generally. >> no more! >> there was a 10% increase youth voter turnout in this election. i think it's safe to say they played a very significant role. >> reporter: but this week in parkland, that progress is overshadowed by a painful anniversary. >> it has felt like the longest year of my life. but at the same time, it feels like it's gone by in a flash. >> reporter: for students lauren hogg, february 14th is a stark reminder of the incense

th innocence that was lost. >> we go outside and see happy valentine's letters or bouquets of flowers for me, i have flashbacks of kids running down the hall, screaming, holding on so bouquets of flowers with gunshots. >> there were an incredible amount of flowers every where. >> reporter: for jaclyn and ryan, reminders everywhere of that day. >> i donfeel like it's been so much, so much longer because we've learn so much. >> we've lived several lifetimes in the past year. >> reporter: fred plans to spend valentine's day remembering his daughter james daughter jamie. >> this year was 40,000, more than traffic accidents. any legislator who thinks they

shouldn't be taking some kind of action to reduce that number, you should be prepared to be fired, because you're weak. i'm certain she's on my shoulder now, telling me you can't put up with this, and you need to be strong. >> our thanks to my co-anchor, juju chang for that report. and when we come back, the sneak peek of robin robert's interview. interview with jessie smollett. e smollett. like how humira has been prescribed to over 300,000 patients. and how many patients saw clear or almost clear skin in just 4 months - the kind of clearance that can last. humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to symptoms. numbers are great. and seeing clearer skin is pretty awesome, too. that's what i call a body of proof.

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and finally here tonight, an advanced look at "empire" star jussie smollett's interview with robin roberts. >> the police have gone through a lot of video, and they were able to capture an image of two people of interest. have you seen that image? >> mm-hm. >> and do you believe that they could possibly be the attackers? >> i do. >> what is it about their size, or why do you feel that they could possibly be? >> because i, i was there. i mean, that, for me, when that

was released, i was like, okay, we're getting somewhere. you know what i'm saying? so, yeah. i don't, i don't have any doubt in my mind that that's them. th. never did. >> and we'll have much more from jussie tomorrow on gma, and right here on "nightline" tomorrow night. that will do it for "nightline" tonight. thank you for watching, and goodnight. thank you for watching and goodnight. goodnight.