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Rockland Students Join National March Protesting Gun Violence

In the wake of thousands of successful walkouts by students throughout the nation last week calling on Congress for tighter gun control laws, students are now organizing a countywide “March for Our Lives” movement.

Students participating in a walkout in the Hudson Valley.

Students participating in a walkout in the Hudson Valley.

Photo Credit: Contributed

Area residents are expected to participate in a “sibling march” beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 24 on the front lawn of the Rockland County Courthouse on South Main Street in New City, all of which is being organized by students around the county.

According to student organizers, students will speak about their involvement and why they believe participating in the March For Our Lives is imperative for them. There will be a moment of silence in memory of the victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. As a tribute to the victims, 17 black chairs will line the courthouse steps. Each victim’s name will be read, a bell rung, and a white dove-shaped balloon bearing their name will be released.

Organizers noted that the march is one of hundreds happening around the country planned by students in solidarity with survivors of gun violence. “The purpose of the march is to call on lawmakers to make students’ lives and well-being a priority and to pass common-sense gun safety legislation.”

Students from Orange County and Bergen County are expected to join their peers in Rockland.

"After the Parkland tragedy, I decided that I wasn't going to sit back and hope that politicians would make change, so I got involved with different types of political activism," Clarkstown North High School Junior Logan Meda said. "I founded the Youth Against Gun Violence organization, and after hearing that here was going to be a March for Our Lives in Rockland, I chose to get involved to speak my mind on the gun violence issues at hand today." 

"The victims shown in the media are interchangeable with figures in my life and even with myself," Tappan Zee High School sophomore Lucy Barsanti added. "I cannot sit back and watch more students get slaughtered. Our right to live should be valued more than an assault rifle." 

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