Parkland pupils are going on bus tours
this summer across the U.S. to promote change after a gunman killed 17 people at their school.
You might call it “March for Our Lives: Part II.”
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High students are going on bus tours across Florida and the country this summer — intent on promoting change after a gunman killed 17 people at their school in February.
The two-pronged effort involves encouraging young people to register to vote, and championing gun-control reforms by naming politicians who accept donations from the National Rifle Association.
In March, hundreds of thousands of teenagers rallied in Washington, D.C., and across America to press for gun control. Now, the student activists from the Parkland school want to create national momentum again by traveling to meet as many people as possible and get them on board.
They may include victims of gun violence, gun owners, as well as student leaders who galvanized support in their own cities.
March for Our Lives’ “Road to Change” is a natural progression to the movement to “harness the energy” to make politicians accountable, said student activist Cameron Kasky. “Real change is brought about by getting out there and making politicians accountable . ... We can fix the political system, we can make it better.”
They’ll join a march that’s planned in Chicago and talk to people in churches and synagogues.
Donations from across the country will pay for their hotel stays along the way and pay the bus company. Students said the donations came through their website, marchforourlives.com. A spokesperson for a PR and marketing agency assisting the students said donations were also raised through the group’s GoFundMe page. The spokesperson would not estimate the total cost of the tour.
Diego Pfeiffer, who just graduated from Stoneman Douglas, said the initiative was too important to pass up. He’ll be participating instead of starting college classes over the summer at University of Miami.
“This is my No. 1 priority,” he said. “Right now, I’m changing America.”
“Even after the summer, we’re not going away until this epidemic is cured,” said Jaclyn Corin, an incoming senior — and the class president — who has been instrumental in the movement so far. Corin is a fellow danceteam member of Jaime Guttenberg, one of the 17 killed. She said she is motivated to keep going until “we can end this senseless violence across this nation.”
About two dozen students leave in June on the 60-day trip broken into two groups.
One bus will cover Florida on June 16. The students will talk to voters about Adam Putnam, who is now the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture and who is running for governor. He wrote on Twitter “I’m a proud #NRASellout!” in July.
Gov. Rick Scott, who is running for Congress, also is on their list. “He doesn’t listen because he has his eyes on the prize, which is NRA money,” Corin said.
The students on the Florida tour will make 27 stops, visiting every congressional district. The students’ second bus leaving June 15 will show in at least 50 cities coast-to-coast in about 20 states, including Iowa, Texas, California, South Carolina and Connecticut.
“We’ll eat when we need to eat. We’ll sleep when we need to sleep,” said Ryan Deitsch, who just graduated from Stoneman Douglas and is on the national bus tour. “We’re trying to not waste a single moment on the tour.”
Corin quit her summer job as a counselor at a sleepaway camp in Georgia, and her friends have walked away from their own summer jobs and college study plans.
“This is our life now,” Corin said. “I believe us doing this, I do believe it’s going to make a difference.”