People in cities all over the country are planning to take part in Saturday’s “March for our lives” demanding an end to gun violence and more school safety measures.
A dozen UW-Milwaukee journalism students will head to Washington D.C. to cover the March as part of a class assignment. They’re taking a 17-hour train ride Thursday afternoon.
“It’s such an important part of history and it’s going to be such a great event,” said Hunter Hanthorn, a Senior at UWM.
“March for our lives” was organized by the teenagers who survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida.
While 12 UWM students will head to the nation’s capital, other journalism students will be covering the “March for our Lives” in Milwaukee or Madison.
Junior Cassandra Bretl is already brainstorming ways to cover her story in Madison.
“I would really like to get the politicians views on a lot of the gun laws,” said Bretl.
Journalism instructor, Jessie Garcia, said students know as reporters they need to make sure not to take sides.
“One thing we need to talk about with them is impartiality. They need to go into this as reporters,” Garcia said.
Senior, Anijah White, said it will be a challenging task considering student-led activism lately has resonated with her.
“I think that’s the hardest part because being students and seeing students our age are going through stuff like this,” said White.
The students have signed up to tell stories either for television, print, radio and other story-telling platforms like social media and blogging.
“A good number of them have never been to D.C. and never been to an event of this magnitude,” said Garcia.
A grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation helped fund the trip.
Students return to Milwaukee Sunday. The deadline for their stories is Thursday.
