GRANDPARENTS JOIN THE FIGHT AGAINST GUN VIOLENCE
Grandparents fired up about school safety after the Parkland shooting have found a way to show solidarity with teen protesters — even if their reliance on walkers prevents them from marching in the streets.
About a dozen grammies and pop-pops, nannies and pappies, omas and opas gathered in the community room of their senior living community Wednesday morning to vent and organize.
Frances Spiselman, 93, has already hobnobbed around the dining room for a couple nights, filling pages of petitions with dozens of signatures for “Grandparents Against Guns.” That’s the catchy moniker she gave to her effort to support teens protesting for school safety after the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead.
Spiselman stipulates that anyone who signs the petition has to be a grandparent — not merely supportive of the cause — and that they include a name, address and phone number.
She purposely avoids politics and the mention of any particular gun, she said.
Her petition states: “We, the undersigned grandparents hereby voice our full support of our precious grandchildren in their ‘NEVER AGAIN’ protest. Again and again, our precious grandchildren have suffered a completely unnecessary terrible tragedy. We stand beside them in their quest for their constitutional right to LIFE, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”
Spiselman is sending the petitions to the students at Parkland in a show of solidarity. Her own granddaughter is in her 30s.
More than 10,000 people in Palm Beach County participated in the March for Our Lives on Saturday. Marchers around the country called for an end to gun violence.
Friends in Boca Raton and West Palm Beach helped Spiselman gather signatures. She even took the petition with her when she went out to eat with her son.
Despite being legally blind and using a walker, she musters all of her 4-foot-10 frame to rally people for the cause. When a few were missing from Wednesday’s gathering, Spiselman dialed them on her flip phone to find out where they were.
“We’re all grandparents, and we all feel dismayed at what’s going on in the schools, and we want to do something to help,” said Florence Donovan, whose grandchild marched in Atlanta on Saturday.
Donovan plans to send the petition to her granddaughter in California to circulate, she said.
“As grandparents, we’re all concerned about our children and grandchildren,” Joan Lindon said.
“Imagine sending your child to school with their lunchbox and he or she is not going to come home,” Wyona Silverberg said. “We took our children to school, and we never had a worry in the world.”
Spiselman handed out more petitions for her neighbors to send to their families in other states to gather signatures. Her cousin put it on Facebook to get the word out.
“I’m not talking about any politics. I’m just saying make our schools safe,” Spiselman said.