News

Actions

Colorado students participate in ‘Vote For Our Lives’ rally in remembrance of 1999 Columbine school shooting

Posted at 7:54 PM, Apr 19, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-19 22:32:46-04

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — Colorado teens and twenty-somethings aiming for tougher laws to prevent school shootings will launch their first major effort with the help of victims from the mass shooting at Parkland, Fla., and just a few feet from Columbine High School.

Since February’s deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, student across the country and in Colorado have walked out of class and taken to the streets. Now, they’re rallying to encourage others to vote.

Teenagers in the Columbine, Colorado, community are teaming up with students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and others across Florida to start a national movement.

On Monday they announced the “Vote for Our Lives” rallies.

Students will spend the next few months signing up their peers to vote and to encourage youth across the country to become involved in politics. They hope that through this movement, their generation will have a voice to stand up for their beliefs, and to elect politicians who believe in them.

Students say their overall goal to say “never again” to gun violence in schools, and in the community.

Sam Craig is one of the students leading this national movement. He told CBS4 schools across the Denver metro area continue to receive threats every day.

“This is happening all the time, and its affecting all of us. Even me at Chatfield High School, I feel the same thing and it’s who we are. It’s our identity and we don’t want it to be,” Craig said. “We don’t want other communities to feel this pain. We don’t want others to have to deal with this two decades later.”

Their first voter registration rally will be held at Clement Park on April 19. Parkland students will be traveling to Colorado to attend. The group will continue to host rallies until the midterm election at cities across the country.