Page 4 - aruba-today-20180324
P. 4
A4
U.S. NEWSSaturday 24 March 2018
Protesters gather in Washington, demanding gun control
By ASHRAF KHALIL Ilan Alhadeff, joined at left by his wife Lori Alhadeff, holds a photograph of their daughter, Alyssa the Vietnam era. It would
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alhadeff, 14, who was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., during a also bolster claims that
Washington is preparing for rally by lawmakers and student activists in support of gun control at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, the nation is ready to en-
a massive rally in support of Friday, March 23, 2018, a day before the March for Our Lives event. act sweeping changes to
gun control, one that orga- its gun control laws. More
nizers hope will prove that (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) than 800 other concurrent
the country has reached marches are planned in
an emotional tipping point cities across America and
on gun violence, with teen- dozens of locations over-
agers seizing the initiative seas.
and leading the demand "I look at the younger kids
for change. and the future generations
The nation's capital is gen- and I never want them to
erally nonchalant about go through what we went
protests, but Saturday's through or see what we
gathering has prompted saw," said 15-year old Kayla
more attention and specu- Renert, a student at Marjo-
lation than usual. ry Stoneman Douglas High
Estimates on crowd size School in Parkland, Florida,
are notoriously unreliable where 17 people were
but organizers are hoping killed on Feb. 14.
to draw 500,000 protest- Renert, who sheltered in
ers; that would match last a classroom during the
year's women's march and attack and had a friend
make this one of the largest wounded in the leg, was on
Washington protests since a bus bringing her to Wash-
ington from the airport after
District arms teachers with rocks in case of shooter flying up from Florida Friday
morning. She pointed out
By KRISTEN DE GROOT truder burst in, the superin- Blue Mountain School Dis- back if the intruder makes that the Parkland shooting
Associated Press tendent said Friday. trict Superintendent David his way into the classroom. wasn't even the most re-
A rural school district in Every classroom in the dis- Helsel. The buckets are kept in cent school shooting in the
Pennsylvania is arming trict about 90 miles (145 "We always strive to find classroom closets. United States. One student
teachers and students with kilometers) northwest of new ways to keep our stu- Kenneth Trump, president was wounded and another
buckets of rocks as a last Philadelphia has a 5-gallon dents safe," Helsel told The of the Cleveland-based later died from her wounds
resort should an armed in- bucket of river stones, said Associated Press in a tele- National School Safety and after being shot Tuesday in
phone interview, adding Security Services, a K-12 se- southern Maryland; the 17-
Paradise in the Caribbean that the rocks are one small curity consulting firm, calls year old gunman was also
part of the district's overall the idea illogical and irra- killed.
SALES OFFICE +297 2801005 info@leventaruba.com security plan. tional and said it could pos- "We keep saying, 'Oh this is
MOBILE +297 5927275 www.leventaruba.com Throwing rocks is more ef- sibly cost lives. going to be the last time.'
fective than just crawling He said the efforts fill an But there's already been
under desks and waiting, emotional security need, another time," Renert said.
and it gives students and but don't actually enhance Many of the protesters
teachers a chance to de- security. One high school spoke pointedly about how
fend themselves, he said. senior said he supports the their parents and others of
The district has about 2,700 plan, adding that throwing their generation had failed
students at three elemen- rocks is better than throw- to bring about the changes
tary schools, a middle ing books or pencils. they are demanding. They
school and a high school. Parents also have been present the youth-led na-
Staff and students in the supportive of the measure, ture of the current move-
Blue Mountain district have which was implemented in ment as proof that they will
been trained in a program the fall. "At this point, we succeed where their pre-
called "ALICE" which stands have to get creative, we decessors had failed.
for alert, lockdown, inform, have to protect our kids “I’m here because previ-
counter and evacuate. first and foremost," parent ous generations couldn’t
Helsel said the rocks are Dori Bornstein told WNEP- do what we’re doing right
part of the "counter" por- TV. "Throwing rocks, it's an now,” said Charlie Shebes,
tion of training, fighting option."q 16, another student from
the high school, on a flight
from Ft. Lauderdale.q
