Ask students to write stories about "the rest of their lives" for figures whose lives were cut short by gun death. The students might write about Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, John Lennon, Mahatma Gandhi, or other famous figures, imagining what they might have been able to accomplish if their lives had not been abbreviated. They might do the same by imagining the life that a friend killed by gun violence could have had.
Sponsor poster, poetry, and essay contests about gun violence, with a different focus for each grade level so that students can take part each year without repeating the activity of the year before.
Gather statistics about young people and gun violence and post them in the school's corridors.
Read and discuss age-appropriate books such as Sherri Chessen's "The Gorp's Gift," for elementary-aged children, and Walter Dean Myers' "Scorpions" for older students.
Draw from the VOW Project's curriculum suggestions, available at www.pledge.org.
Organize a concert that celebrates peace.
Designate one person in each homeroom to look at the paper each day and clip any news stories about a young person (under age 19) who gets shot. Hand out black armbands with the names of gun victims.
Give students the assignment of conducting group interviews with people who deal with gun violence on a daily basis: a doctor, an emergency room worker, an ambulance driver, a police officer, a reporter who covers violent crime, etc. Each group will prepare a report for the class.
Collect signed pledges and have community leaders and students take them to the family of a young person who was shot. Tell the family about the students' pledge to see that other families will not have similar losses.
Create a wall of remembrance and ask people to post stories about people they know of or have read about who died from guns.
Plan an all-school assembly where speakers may include gunshot survivors, an emergency room physician or inspiring community leaders.
Sponsor a contest for a Student Pledge cheer or slogan. Ask your school's cheerleaders to lead the winning cheer at a sporting event.
Ask music classes to compose catchy songs that include the SPEAK-UP phone number in them. (SPEAK-UP is a national hot-line sponsored by PAX that allows students to make anonymous reports about suspected violent threats in schools.)
In media classes, invite students to create a public service announcement for television or radio about the Student Pledge and the Day of National Concern about Young People and Gun Violence. See if you can get a local station to run it on the air. If not, play the PSA at a school assembly.
The Pledge
The Student Pledge Against Gun Violence is a national program that honors the role that young people, through their own decisions, can play in reducing gun violence. This campaign against youth gun violence culminates each year on a Day of National Concern about Young People and Gun Violence. The program provides a means for beginning the conversation with young people about gun violence. It refers teachers, counselors, and community leaders to valuable resources, includes curriculum suggestions that can be integrated with existing academic programs, and contains information about how your school can participate.
