Catholic schools, March for Our Lives
Cleveland, Ohio — Three Catholic students helped organize Cleveland's nonviolent march and rally [1] against gun violence March 24.
Grace Kelley and Jane Roche, both 17-year-old students from St. Joseph Academy [2], and Sam Hoag, an 18-year-old student from St. Ignatius High School [3], joined public school counterparts in planning the event, which attracted an estimated 20,000 impassioned teenagers and adults.
More than a hundred students and faculty from Northeast Ohio Catholic high schools attended the march in Cleveland Public Square, including students from St. Joseph Academy, St. Ignatius, Cleveland Central Catholic [4], Beaumont [5], Magnificat [6], Villa Angela-St. Joseph [7], Gilmour Academy [8] and Walsh Jesuit [9].
At 8:15 a.m., I boarded a bus with a contingent of young women from St. Joseph Academy, along with principal Jeff Sutliff and school librarian Rebecca Synk.
On the way downtown, I asked the students why they were marching that day. Almost to a person, they replied that they wanted to protest "senseless acts of violence against children" and that they "didn't want to be afraid to come to school."