Recently, Dorsey High School’s STEM and Law Academies launched the “Student Leaders of South Los Angeles March Four Our Lives Chapter” in hopes to build a strong coalition of student leaders to fight school violence across the nation.
The group is sponsored by one of the school’s teachers, White House Champion of Change Educator Daphne Bradford.
“This is their ‘what’s next’ step,” said Dorsey Law and Public Service Magnet student, Jada Salazar.
“Just like the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, our future leaders need support from parents, teachers, law enforcement agencies, Congressional representatives, Senators, local government officials, entertainers, athletes, churches and community members to help make our lives and safety at school a priority.”
As part of the group’s mission and goal, a “walk-in” classroom town hall was held on Friday, April 20, to discuss the improvement of school safety in partnership with LAUSD school police. Additionally, the town hall focused on working with congress to end school violence, arming teachers with school supplies instead of guns. Congresswoman Karen Bass who is also a supporter of March for Our Lives, attended the event.
“Our congressional representative Bass listened to all of our ideas and everything we asked her help with she said yes to all of them,” said student member of the Student Leaders of South Los Angeles March For Our Lives Chapter at Dorsey High School, Imani Davis.
“I wrote to the Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos, and tried to deliver it to her during our trip to Washington, DC for the March For Our Lives Rally. If she came to our school our group wouldn’t protest because we need to be at the table with people making decisions about our education and safety at school.”
Both Bradford and Bass will continue working together to help the students at Dorsey High School connect with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students in Parkland, Fl. To continue their efforts, the group has plans to work with the Los Angeles School Police Association to organize a student exchange journey with the high school founders of the March For Our Lives and the #NeverAgain movements.
