High School Brooklynites Draw Plans to March Vs. School Shootings

By RYAN THAXTON

Borough President Eric Adams welcomed students, teachers, and activists to Borough Hall on Thursday to map Brooklyn’s plans to join the March For Our Lives movement and coordinate participation in the nationwide student walkouts scheduled for March 14 to protest school gun violence.

This support includes providing buses to shuttle Brooklynites to Washington, D.C. on March, 24 to attend the national March For Our Lives and cooperation with any marches planned that day in Brooklyn.

The March For Our Lives movement is organized by students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where a gunman killed 14 students and three staff members at the school on Feb. 14 and has quickly been taken up by students and activists across the nation.

The Borough President vowed to “do the navigating [he] needs to do to make these young people’s voices heard. The ideas here are amazing.”

Adams called on Brooklyn schools to set an example for the rest of the city. “We are the largest borough of Brooklyn, so we’re the big brother of the city,” he said. “The other boroughs are going to absorb into what we’re doing here.”

Adams suggested Prospect Park as a convening space for the March, 14 walkout. “Central Park does not allow demonstrations of this magnitude,” he  said. “That’s fine for them. Prospect Park, we do. And we are going to call the rally to be here in Brooklyn right here in Prospect Park.”

Many students called for more civics classes and emotional support to make students feel more comfortable in schools. “We have to reshift the department of education,” Adams said in response. “Not only must our children be academically smart, they must be emotionally intelligent.”

Adams also advised students on how to engage with their elected leaders and suggested schools attempt to register as many high school seniors eligible to vote as possible. “No elected official is going to hear you if you don’t have a ballot in your hand,” warned Adams.

However, Adams also noted that the actions taken by young people in response to the Parkland shooting “has sent shivers through the entire legislation process. They all understand now, the jig is up!”

Photo by Ryan Thaxton