Read below excerpts from emails and letters received by The Pledge.
Hi, I am Student Council President of Western School of Technology and Environmental Science. The school is located in Baltimore, Maryland in the Catonsville area. This year our Student Council has decided to make the Student Pledge a school-wide program. Not only is Student Council doing this, but we are joining up with our SADD organization in ensuring that this is a success. They are extremely active in getting the student body involved in serious issues like this.
Not only will we be getting students to sign the pledges, but we will have a ‘Train of Pledges’ around the school. The engine will start in the lobby of the school and hopefully with all the pledges we can have the caboose ending back in the lobby as well.
Announcements have been written that will share statistics on gun violence. This will lead up to the very day of the signing of the pledges. A big pledge will be posted in the cafeteria and posters will be posted with facts on them. We have a great event [planned], and with two great teams working this, this will be a sure winner…
The interesting fact about this day is that it is our School Spirit Day for Homecoming. So what better way to get the school involved than on a day where we’re supposed to show our true school spirit.
This pledge will demonstrate that WE ARE willing to take a step to stop gun violence among our peers.
Once again, St. Mary Star of the Sea School participated in the National Student Pledge Against Gun Violence. We are grateful to the National Committee, the Chicago Police Department, the coordinated efforts of organizations, and concerned city leaders to have been given the opportunity to join in the fourth annual “Day of National Concern.” This participation empowered our students to discover that they really can reverse violence by voluntarily signing the Pledge…
Our national day went international as you know. Everyone seemed to like the idea of inviting our community guests to the school and including them in our assembly…St. Mary’s entire school and guests met in church and then we walked around the school and church building [symbolically taking their pledges out into the larger world].” Several of our guests spoke expressing their thanks to the children for their decision to sign the pledge and also shared their concerns for children’s safety. Our guests’ presence at our celebration was very impressive to our students, faculty, and community.
Thank you for everything – your time and your leadership. We hope that this will continue to be an annual event for all schools in the city, state, country and around the world. We cannot over-emphasize safety for our children!
We had 1,300 students take the pledge, march with banners in support. A Sheriff’s helicopter, the US Coast Guard with boat, several police cars and boats, a ladder fire truck and emergency vehicles from the fire department all were there to show the Greco Middle School their support.
All in all a rip-roaring success on October 29, 1999, in conjunction with the end of Red Ribbon Week. Today the Mayor of the City of Temple Terrace will come to school and read a proclamation on GRECO TV honoring their efforts.
Thanks!
My teacher is Miss Genine. I am in the third grade and I go to Fountain Day School in Los Angeles CA. We would just like you to know that we are following your pledge and really agree with outcome that is affecting our world at large.
[Note from MLG: I added capital letters where needed as the 3rd grade student who wrote this email used only lower-case letters.]
Hi this is ______________________. I go to Plainville High School in Plainville Ct. I spoke to you on Thursday October 22 during your live broadcast. I was telling you how my school participated in the pledge project. This project was led by three students, ________ , ___________, and myself. We also had full support from our marketing teacher and Deca organizer, Mr. __________. The whole entire Plainville Deca chapter also assisted in the project….
We went into full swing on October 18. We distributed pledge sheets throughout the school and in four days we were able to get 664 signed and returned in a school of 730 students. On October 22, we created a banner and had the students who signed a pledge also sign the banner and we placed it next to our other banner which read ‘Plainville High School/ We Pledge/ Never to bring a gun to school.’
Those banners went up in front of our school by the main road. Also on October 22, we distributed blue ribbons to the students who signed the pledge. The media got quickly involved. WFSB Channel 3 interviewed ________________ and also aired our banner on the Channel 3 news. The New Britan Herald interviewed _______________and the article appeared in the Friday edition of the paper. We are glad that we received information on the I Pledge project…
Thank you for the update! FAME Community Assistance Corporation, NYC, sponsored a Youth Summit Against Gun Violence in Homestead Pennsylvania on on August 29. The event was our national kick-off campaign against youth violence. It was an overwhelming success. We received a letter from President Clinton, as well as media coverage. The pledges were distributed also. I have received reports that 500 copies of the pledge were signed by young people throughout Homestead and other communities of Allegheny County Pennsylvania. We will officially report the numbers on the appropriate form.
Community support of our event was overwhelming. Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation, under the leadership of the Vice-President and General Manager _________provided media sponsorship. Not only Mr. ________, one of our keynote speakers, but his staff participated in promotions and Co-Hosting… I was a guest on the radio, along with the Youth Summit Co-Executive Producer. We were provided an opportunity to speak on this very important initiative.
We look forward to the ongoing work of empowering America’s children and youth…
Hello, my name is _______________. I am one of the students in the district that recently received your pledge. I would just like to tell you that I think that your [sic] doing a great job trying to influence kids to stay violence free and to stay away from weapons. I thank you soooo much for trying to make not just my school but all of the other schools in the district to be a better and safer place for kids to be. Well that’s all I have to say. Bye!
From a mother in North Carolina, writing after Hurricane Floyd: Hi, this is ________________. About a month ago, I received the pledge packet in the mail. I took it to my kids’ school and talked to the principal. He was very interested in doing the pledge at our school. We were going to get together again to see how we would do this when Hurricane Floyd came. The only thing salvageable were the desks and chairs. Needless to say, the packet was also ruined. Could you please send me another? It will be interesting how we do this pledge as all the kids will be at different sites when they go back to school. They have been out of school since September 15th and will not go back until October 4th , but we will do this pledge somehow! We think it is a great thing you are doing.
From Oklahoma: Thank you so much for your informational packet and assistance. Our play “Bang Bang You’re Dead,” written by William Mastrosimone about school violence came off wonderfully. Our assembly rocked and the students responded excellently. I’ll be collecting pledges until Thursday and will send you the tally on Friday October 29. We’ll also be taking our play around the Oklahoma City Metro area, with our message of student unification and non-violence. I’ll have students signing pledges at those schools too…
Thanks again for all your great support…We received wonderful press from our local media in conjunction with the play and the pledges. Local TV news stations came to our performance and interviewed myself and students. Great news for young people!!
Keep up the good work!
At El Dorado Middle School in El Dorado Kansas, 250 students and parents have signed the pledge. We are very excited about this pledge and want to support any action which will keep guns and weapons out of our schools…
We also painted a wall in our building and have almost 400 hand prints on the wall in support of this pledge. At our open house in August, we had parents and students sign the pledge. We then painted the students’ hands yellow and parents’ hands black and had them put their hand print on the wall beside the contract, which was also painted on the wall. They then signed their name beside the pledge.
During the next few months, we are taking this message out to the community of El Dorado, inviting everyone to come into the building and place their hand print on the wall in support of this pledge. I am so excited that writing on our walls is the writing of peace and not of violence.
We had the parade and other activities. We are planning to have a candlelight ceremony at the stadium during the half-time of the football game. I want everyone to sign the pledge and show their support. The two bands playing that evening will come together as one and play a ballad in support of our pledge. We are kicking off a lot of things. People seem excited to work with me on this project. I have contacted the Title IX Coordinator at the District Office and stadium manager for their support. They have also offered some ideas.
I am just bubbling with the support for these children. The wholesome support for youth services is just super. Thanks again for your support and allowing me the opportunity to vent my joy.
East Cobb Middle School in Marietta, Georgia, has taken a leadership role in their community in the STUDENT PLEDGE AGAINST GUN VIOLENCE. On October 8 th there will be an assembly for 8 th graders in the school theater (which 6 th and 7 th graders will view over closed-circuit television in their homerooms) with speakers, a song performed by the 8 th grade chorus, and a reciting of the pledge. Students will sign their individual pledges in homeroom. They will be addressed by the Superintendent of Cobb County Schools, ______________ and Dr. __________from the Emory University School of Public Health. They will also hear the story of ___________a local woman who was accidentally shot by a 6 th grader she was babysitting when she was a teenager. The student council has played an important part in this effort and will be seated on stage with the teachers, administrators and special guests. Every student will receive a sticker which is a miniature version of the student pledge and logo. The pledges will be given to the parents of each student during parent conference week.
My name is ________________and I am a guidance counselor at Marine Park, IS278 in Brooklyn NY. Myself along with a few other colleagues and a wonderfully supportive principal successfully completed a wonderful program on October 21 st , tallying over 1100 pledges and offering our sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students the opportunity to hear speakers from various levels of New York City Police work including the Chief of School Safety, Gang Related Education and Training, the Department of Probation, Youth Officers from our district and our keynote speaker Detective________. Also included were two representatives from the District Attorney’s Office, Members of Victim Services and a Doctor involved in Doctors Against Murder. We dedicated the entire day to bring our children passionate speakers who brought home the results of violence and encouraged the pledge against it. These speakers made children realize that they have a choice about how they live in this world and that the wrong choices can lead to tragedy and loss.
This day was certainly the high point of my career. Students were deeply affected by this day and have written personal notes to the speakers telling them that their lives were changed because of their messages. My colleagues who worked together on this day all share in this feeling and are committed to continue this kind of work. We would like to know if you have a date for next year’s pledge because we would like to work on getting a keynote speaker committed to the date. I also would appreciate any other recommendations you can give us to continue this work between now and then.