Brooklyn Middle Schoolers 'Walkout To End Gun Violence'

BROOKLYN, NY — Middle schoolers from a Crown Heights charter school took to the streets last week to call for an end to gun violence.

Students from the Launch Expeditionary Learning Charter School participated in the school's annual "Walkout to End Gun Violence" on June 5, which included a march and rally from the school's Dean Street location to Restoration Plaza, officials said.

The annual walkout—held the week of National Gun Violence Awareness Day — featured speeches from student organizers who have lost family members to gun violence, dance performances, spoken word poetry and distribution of pamphlets with gun violence facts.

Each spring, the 7th-grade curriculum at the charter school incorporates a learning program focused on the issue of gun violence and what actions can students take to address it, officials said.

The event was done in partnership with Save Our Streets.

We are treating gun violence as a public health crisis,” 7th grade student Genesis Tyrell told Patch. “For decades, the question of what the best approach is to the epidemic of gun violence has been a highly contested and political topic. We believe that coming out here and taking a public health approach would help the discussion.”

“Our goal for this is to empower students and to help them realize that they can make a change in the community no matter how small or big the action is,” shared 7th grade science teacher and lead organizer alongside students, science teacher Janee Wright told Patch.

“Students are aware of what is happening in their own communities and what makes national news, but to explore the in-and-outs of how we got to this point with this public health crisis really resonated with students."

Student Leslie Hidalgo Tufino said gun violence "is a very big problem that has taken the lives of many loved ones.”