Four things to know about Saturday’s event
This weekend, students and adults in Chattanooga will come together to join a national movement calling for safer schools and end to gun violence.
Chattanooga’s March for Our Lives is one of many such events happening across the country Saturday, part of the movement launched by survivors of the shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school in February that left 17 dead.
Locally, the group of students, Chattanooga Students Leading Change, that planned school walkouts last week has been organizing Saturday’s march.
Here’s what you need to know about Saturday’s event:
1. WHO IS BEHIND IT?
Chattanooga Students Leading Change (CSLC) is a group of students from various schools across Hamilton County that formed after the Parkland shooting.
The students, many of whom are from area private or suburban high schools, have been meeting weekly at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and the Kingdom Center with a group of local clergy members and adults, including representatives from Chattanooga Moms for Social Justice and members of the group Moms Demand Action. One of CSLC’s five working groups was a planning committee for the march.
2. WHERE AND WHEN IS IT?
The march, which organizers expect will attract more than 2,000 participants, will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday in Coolidge Park at 150 River St., Chattanooga. It is expected to last about two hours. Road closures include one lane of eastbound Frazier Avenue and Walnut Street from the Walnut Street bridge to Seventh Street. Fourth Street will remain open, with Chattanooga police officers manning the intersection of Fourth Street and Walnut.
A short program, including several student speakers, will kick off the event. A choir made up of students from a variety of schools in the area will perform before and during the march. Student activists will present a call to action and steps people can take to lobby for an end to violence, including texting or tweeting their elected representatives. Marchers will begin in Coolidge Park, make their way across the Walnut Street pedestrian bridge to the Hamilton County Courthouse and then back to the park.
4. WHAT’S NEXT?
Chattanooga Students Leading Change has several other initiatives underway, including efforts to organize conversations with Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg speaks to the media Feb. 28 as he returns to school in Parkland, Fla. local and state officials, and schools. At the march on members hope to schedule Saturday, premade postcards a meeting with U.S. will be on hand for Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. participants to fill out and Student leaders also are send to senators. Students organizing a letter-writing will continue to meet and campaign to lobby elected encourage students from officials to oppose Tennessee around Hamilton County HB 2208, which aims to to join in their efforts in the arm teachers in Tennessee coming weeks.
For more information on Saturday’s event, visit: www.facebook.com/marchforourlivescha.