Involving Your School at the Last Minute

Leading up to the Student Pledge Against Gun Violence with awareness-building activities will greatly enhance its impact. But if your school has just learned of this youth anti-gun-violence campaign and wants to take part, the suggestions below will make some participation possible.

• Clip and enlarge local news stories about recent shootings and get students to hang them on the walls.
   
• If there isn't time to distribute individual copies of the Pledge in an assembly or in individual classrooms, post a blow-up of the Pledge on a bulletin board or wall in the hallway, with sign-up sheets for students to sign. Or put an enlarged copy of the Pledge on the wall with a long roll of butcher paper beside it for signatures.
   
• Create an entire wall of black construction paper. Have students circulate between classes with trays of water-soluble colored paint and paint rollers. Invite students to roller-paint their hands and make Pledge hand-prints on the wall and sign their names beneath their hands.
   
• Every hour throughout the day read a statistic about young people and gun violence over the public address system. Write one statistic per page, place it on construction paper, and post in the halls.
   
• Have a wall of student-created posters about avoiding gun violence that can stay up in places of high visibility. Students can add new ones all year long.
   
• Have a student, an important public figure, your principal, or a favorite teacher lead students in reciting the Pledge over the public address system.

If your school participates, be sure to total the number of signed pledges and send us the tally!