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Day of National Concern and Student Pledge Against Gun Violence - October 24, 2007

The Student Pledge Against Gun Violence began in 1996, supported by unanimous U.S. Senate Resolution and Presidential Proclamation, both calling for a Day of National Concern about Young People and Gun Violence and national distribution of the Student Pledge. Since 1996, more than ten million students nationwide have signed the Pledge.Each year, the Day of Concern overlaps with National Safe Schools Week during the third week of October.

If you haven't begun planning for your school's participation this year, you might consider using Oct. 24th as a launch date for a year-long series of activities that could culminate on next year's Day of National Concern. The signing of the Pledge could either start the year-long campaign or serve as its culmination -- or both.

And check the website www.pledge.org in coming days for ideas on how to take part in this year's events. The site and its suggestions provide a tool easily available to schools and communities all over the country. The materials can be downloaded and used at no cost, and the website includes curriculum suggestions and book recommendations that are appropriate for different age groups. Also available is a brochure.

Participation in the Student Pledge sends an important message: that violence is neither inevitable nor an abstract force against which young people are powerless. Violence is, rather, the sum total of individual decisions, and reversing the violence will occur individual decision by individual decision.

This campaign affords the opportunity for linking networks both within and across communities, for complementing rather than replacing existing prevention efforts, and -- perhaps most importantly -- for honoring the role that young people themselves can play in helping to reverse violence.