MINNEAPOLIS — Sheridan Dual Immersion School students, staff and parents held a march against gun violence Friday afternoon -- an idea out into motion by a second grader.
While parents and teachers lined the building in support, it was that student's entire classroom then got to work, securing permission from the principal, figuring out logistics like the march route, and inviting the rest of the school community to join them.
"Lots of other classes and groups of kids wanted to help us," second-grader Ilene Shaffner said.
The march comes after Minneapolis police say three kids under 10 were on the bus Wednesday last week when someone shot their driver. The driver survived with non life-threatening injuries and no kids were physically hurt.
"I [felt] a bit like kind of sad about what happened and mad about the guns and kind of scared," fellow second grader Josh Loja Guasco said. "Every time, there's something happen to all of the persons and I don't want anything to happen now."
School leaders say this is a school where students are encouraged to amplify their voices; and students like Emil Perez-Lauterbach seem to understand.
"You can't make change if you don't say it," Perez-Lauterbach said. "People don't know if you sit around and ignore it. You have to express it."
"We can't let it happen again because it's just it's like too sad," classmate Sara Salcedo-Mata added.
"To see the leadership that they took to find resources to talk to people to make this happen in a short amount of time for them was just an amazing experience," their teacher Maria Peña said.
MPD Public Information Officer Garrett Parten said as of Friday evening no arrests have been made in connection to the shooting and the motive is under investigation.