Two Minnesota natives, including one Duluth student, are among the 100 students who will descend on Washington D.C. this weekend to discuss gun violence in schools.
They are Will Smith, a junior at Harbor City International School and Munira Alimire, a resident of Rochester, Minn., and a freshman attending Stanford University. They were selected as part of a diverse crowd to build upon the gun violence conversation. They spent yesterday and will continue today meeting with those students.
"The whole goal is to come together, have students create a student bill of rights that they will take home and work with their legislators to help implement," said Carli Kientzle, a communication assistant with the Student Gun Violence Summit.
Some of the themes discussed included Second Amendment rights, access to firearms and mental health - all focal points in the gun violence debate. Despite the lack of direct control that students have over the legislative process, Kientzle said students need to give their input.
"Students are the most affected right now and they feel the most powerless," Kientzle said. "Of course teachers are in the mix as well, so this is an opportunity to say 'Hey, this is how we're feeling, we're scared and we want to do something to change it.'"
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While Smith and Alimire flew to Washington D.C. Friday night, much of the discussion took place on Saturday at a series of panels before concluding with two breakout sessions discussing how gun violence issues affect both communities of color and the LGBTQ individuals. Today, students will formulate the talking points from previous discussions and implement them into their own Bill of Rights.
Kientzle said it's going to be student-driven. Being the first of its kind, the summit organizers want to take a broad scope in how to move forward beyond what comes out of the weekend. She said once students return home, it's going to be on them to work with their legislators.
"It's going to be up to them to do it," said Kientzle, "but we are working with them to give them the tools to do it."
It's not a cheap endeavor, flying most of the 100 students to Washington D.C. To pay for the tickets, as well as the other amenities, the Student Gun Violence Summit is receiving funding through the eight separate groups.
