Newsletter | February 21, 2003

Date set for 2003: Next October 23 will be this year's Day of National Concern about Young People and Gun Violence.

A change in the wording of the older students' Pledge: We will be changing the second line in the Pledge to read: "I will never use a gun to settle a personal problem or dispute" in order to encompass the issue of teen suicide. By broadening the language of the Pledge, we hope that discussions surrounding the Pledge will be able to address the whole spectrum of impulse killings.

3,099,270 pledges reported for 2002. Tallies for 2002 surpass those of any previous year.

As is always the case, it is not the numbers in and of themselves that make a given year's observance meaningful. It is the creative ways that students, teachers, parents, administrators, and community leaders begin and sustain the conversation about the dangers of gun violence that leave the lasting impressions.

The details that are reported back to us reflect only a small fraction of the wonderful programs that schools create around this campaign. But, in the belief that the cross-fertilization of ideas enables all those who participate to learn from each other, I pass along some highlights from last fall's Day of National Concern.

Honolulu: The outstanding effort in Hawaii's schools this year marked the first time that students there had taken part in the Student Pledge. Organized by the Honolulu Police Department's CrimeStoppers and the Honolulu Student Council, the Pledge got to 48 schools and four different islands, with more than 27,000 pledges reported from the state.

On October 24, Det. Letha DeCaires and two Honolulu high school students appeared on two of Hawaii's top local television morning shows to talk about the day's activities and to promote the Student Pledge. Later in the day, a large pep rally took place at Moana Lua High School to celebrate their participation in CrimeStoppers and the fact that their school had the largest number of pledge participants of any school in Hawaii.

Washington, DC: Once again, Washington's schools participated in this year's Day of National Concern with district-wide participation and more than 50,000 pledges reported. Their kick-off event at Shaw Junior High drew on student leadership and community involvement, with a student m.c., the District's Youth Mayor, the President of the city-wide Student Council, and representatives from the D.C. Police Department and the Mayor's office participating.

The Youth Mayor asked how many students at the assembly knew people who had been shot. In response to the large number who replied that they did, the Youth Mayor issued a challenge about changing the dynamics that contribute to such a toll. A local minister used rap music to draw a distinction between "Thug Life" and "Real Life" for a very responsive student audience.

San Diego: The San Diego schools have worked for the past two years with the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, located in San Diego, to create materials that would engender on-going classroom discussions about avoiding gun violence. Tariq Khamisa was a young college student who was shot and killed by a fourteen-year-old while delivering some pizza. Tariq's father, Azim Khamisa, and the grandfather of the shooter, Plez Felix, work together to take the message to young people that violence and vengeance are a never-ending spiral. The San Diego schools and the Khamisa Foundation take the story of one young man's death and the other's remorse and imprisonment to schools in the area through age-appropriate video accounts and personal visits by Azim Khamisa and Plez Felix.

This year, the schools combined Pledge materials, their own curriculum and discussion guides, and The Gorp's Gift by Sherri Chessen (a book for elementary-aged students about avoiding guns) onto their web site. In this way, parents could have access to the materials their children were discussing in school.

The Day of Concern was launched with a press conference led by Mr. Khamisa, Mr. Felix, Superintendent of Schools, Alan Bersin, and Joanne Wall, Executive Director of Student Services.

Chicago: Spearheaded by the Chicago Police Department and aided by the public schools, Mayor Daley's office, the parochial school system, the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the State's Attorney's office, the local FBI and ATF, and B-96 radio station, the community came together to reach Chicago's students with their anti-gun-violence campaign. (Dissemination was aided by the fact that all school resource officers from the Chicago PD were asked to submit reports to their precinct captains detailing their plans for helping with Day of Concern activities.)

The B-96 radio broadcast, with popular d.j.s Eddie and Jobo, gave an hour and a quarter of commercial-free air time to local leaders such as Mayor Daley; Police Superintendent Hillard; former Chicago Bears superstar, Otis Wilson; young actor Maestro Harrell; CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, Arnie Duncan; Cook County Board President, John Stroger; and young call-in guests so they could share their ideas about avoiding gun violence.

City leaders were generous in spending time in the schools throughout the day to help carry the message of the Student Pledge. In one high school, speakers included two young men, now in wheelchairs, who talked about how their lives were permanently changed by a bullet, and retired police officer, Mike Robbins, who was shot thirteen times in the line of duty, only to have his own son shot and seriously wounded several years later. St. Mary's Star of the Sea parochial school and its neighboring public school came together at a powerful and moving assembly attended by two thousand students which featured student musical performances and talks by community leaders.

Two high schools' Day of Concern programs were videotaped and reshown on cable television until last month. As recently as two weeks ago, a student called Eddie and Jobo on B-96 radio to tell them that he still thought about the memorable talk show they did on the Day of Concern.

(Chicago's and Hawaii's experience, demonstrate the benefits of involving your city's school resource police officers, if you have them. They are a well-organized network with existing ties to the schools.)

Northfield, MN: On October 4, Mieko Hattori, mother of slain Japanese exchange student, Yoshi Hattori, visited Northfield High School as part of her visit to the US on the tenth anniversary of her son's shooting death in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She wanted to visit a school participating in the Student Pledge Against Gun Violence and thought it was fitting to go to the town where the Student Pledge began.

Planned and organized by students, the assembly featured a cd-rom presentation with youth gun violence statistics, an orchestral and choral presentation of the Et in terra pax section of Poulenc's Gloria, plywood silhouettes representing real students whose lives had been cut short by gun violence (and a brief bio of each read by students standing behind a screen), and a talk by Mieko Hattori about her son's hopes and dreams cut short. Northfield High School's principal, Bruce Santerre, talked about two gun deaths that had touched him personally, and Mary Lewis Grow, founder of the Student Pledge Against Gun Violence, talked about her hope that it would help empower students around the country to realize their individual and collective power as change agents.

Little Rock, AR: On October 22, the Little Rock School District Peer Helpers Advisory Council, with 776 students, the Mayor of Little Rock, a representative from the Governor's Office, and other community leaders observed White Ribbon Day on the steps of the State Capitol in support of the city's young people and their gun violence prevention campaign. Parents and loved ones of young people who had died from guns spoke about how their lives have been forever changed by their losses. White ribbons, used as a symbol of youth gun violence awareness, became a theme for the whole city, with businesses encouraged to hang white ribbons at their businesses, and ribbons adorning classroom doors.

Throughout the week of October 22-25, schools planned all sorts of activities to raise awareness about youth gun violence. Eight schools in which eighty percent or more of the student body had signed the Pledge received special plaques. A conflict mediation videotape was created and broadcast on the district's Educational Television access Channel and the Channel 1 station. Students were encouraged to ask forgiveness and to forgive things that others had done. On the 24th, schools in the city were encouraged to observe a moment of silence in memory of young people who had died from gun violence.

Boston, MA: Miss America for 2003, Erika Harold, and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino participated in a press conference at the Harvard School of Public Health on October 24 to recognize the Day of National Concern about Young People and Gun Violence. They were joined by David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center and professor of health policy at HSPH, who presented the latest data on the toll of gun-related homicide, suicide, and accidental deaths of children. Governor Jane Swift sent a proclamation recognizing the seventh Day of National Concern about Young People and Gun Violence, and a group of local students signed the Pledge. This year's Miss America has made reducing youth violence her signature issue and is a national spokesperson for the Student Pledge Against Gun Violence.

The press conference also kicked off the next day's "Peace Party," an event sponsored by the Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center to honor 28 local Boston residents who are making a difference by promoting peace at the neighborhood level.

Planning for October 23, 2003

Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here, spoke recently at Carleton College. His book deals with the lives of young people for whom guns and violence are a daily part of life. In making the case that the well-being of our whole society and culture is linked to how successfully we work to make these children's lives better, he pointed to the power of story as an agent for promoting change since stories reach our hearts as well as our minds. I am impressed by how often, in the accounts you send about what your schools and communities have done in connection with the Student Pledge and the Day of Concern, you have drawn on personal stories.

Perhaps for this next year's observance, we might begin pooling and sharing the stories that we gather. When Northfield High School students told me that they wanted to make plywood silhouettes that would represent specific young people who had lost their lives to guns, they asked if I could give them some biographical sketches. I drew on stories of young people I knew about - some of them from stories that you have shared. But it occurs to me that we could begin to share the stories that we gather with each other so that we can, in turn, share them with students who take part in the Day of National Concern.

Don't forget to check out our website (www.pledge.org) for ideas as you begin to plan for next October. (I always urge you to look at the curriculum ideas suggested by the VOW Project and listed in condensed form on our website, as well as our references to useful resources. Books such as Sherri Chessen's The Gorp's Gift, for example, make it possible to talk in age-appropriate ways about gun violence, even with very young children.) And be sure to let us know about the creative ideas you develop. Each year, we hear of new ideas that schools have tried, and we like to be able to pass them along.

My husband and I plan to take a group of Carleton College students to China to study for their spring term but I will be reachable by e-mail while we are gone, and my wonderful assistant, Kielly Dunn, will be available to answer questions by phone or e-mail. Please try out our new email address, [an error occurred while processing this directive], but rest assured that mail sent to our old address will continue to be forwarded.

Stay in touch and let us know how we can support your local efforts.

Warm best wishes,
Mary Lewis Grow, National Coordinator