The first night at the Dean Phillips event, students from St. Joseph’s high school in Philadelphia were there front and center discussing the use of weapons in schools…, according to reports from August 2023, it was recorded that about 134 Philadelphia students had been victim to gun violence. Phillips said whether it was fatally or with minor injuries, students should not be concerned about whether they’re going to make it home before the school day starts. Phillips response was to create awareness surrounding the problem. He profiled victims of mass shootings and created The Violence Project to get their stories out into the world.
Following a question by AJ Soto, a St. Joseph’s student, about gun violence in
schools, Phillips plans to create a youth cabinet to get students to share ideas on how we convolved forward with gun violence prevention in schools. “We don’t have colleagues in congress to do the hard work to ban assault weapons”, so what better way to get started then to create programs involving the youth.” He also plans to invest in millions of Americans mental and emotional health with national health care programs
that will evidently reduce the suicide rates and “save thousands of lives to gun violence.”
Aside from gun violence prevention programs, candidates like Nikki Haley and Marianne
Williamson were in favor of education reformation as well. At the Town Hall meeting for Nikki
Haley, she stated her son, a college student, was not interested in what he was learning or writing essays on, that students need to be challenged. Education systems should not only need to be teaching students, but educators should expand a child’s concepts and learning
abilities” Haley said. “Let’s take away the power of the federal government, reduce the size of the Department of Education and empower the parents on the ground, empower the people in those states,” Haley said.
Isiah Jones, a seventeen-year-old student at St. Joseph’s High School in Philadelphia, was also an attendee at the Nikki Haley rally on Saturday morning, believes students should be engaged in their communities. If we were to get students more involved in community work, we can implement
student led projects to improve engagement within the Philadelphia area, and to gain a more diverse perspective about other people’s live/ experiences in Philadelphia and how that may or may not relate to them,” Jones said. “Giving back to the community can lead us to become more aware of the issues faced in Philadelphia.” He also wanted to make a point that teachers need to start inviting uest speakers/community activists into the classroom, possibly leading to volunteer
opportunities for students, to which they could be involved on a deeper level rather than just learning about it.
Benilda Martinez, an advocate for Nikki Haley, came from
Boston, Mass to attend the rally. She brought her two granddaughters, with the idea of showing them that they could do anything or be anything in this world. Not waiting for an educator to give her granddaughters access to a huge event like the primaries, she took it upon herself to go out and
be involved. She states “I want to empower them and show them how important it is that a
woman was running for President… the children are our future voice,” she said. “My granddaughters need to be here, as little as they are they need to experience this…”
Marianne Williamson’s event in Nashau, New Hampshire was encompassing. There were people with families, kids, her event was even held at a family-owned restaurant. She discussed that she wants to “create community-based schools that support the needs of students that face setbacks in their education.” She also stated that “providing full funding for modern facilities and educational equipment, and updated textbooks, in all schools regardless of zip code.”
Jaimeika Lewis a Black woman, New Hampshire resident, was sitting front row with her child listening to Williamson’s powerful thought process. “I attended several of Marianne’s events and I believe that I really got involved in politics once I saw her efforts of pouring into underserved communities,”she said. “I didn’t have a lot of opportunities growing up, I didn’t finish college, I’m a single mom and I want to provide
a life for my daughter that I never had. I attend these BIPOC community events to really understand where politicians are trying to bridge the gap between their actual jobs and the work, they’re doing to create lasting change.”
Lewis’s daughter has a learning disability, and works with a speech therapist at her school, and like Williamson stated community-based support from the school system is clearly
helping children advance in their studies. Every interviewer stated if we form groups where we were able to share ideas and not just stay stagnant and complacent with the discrepancies in the school system people would see a difference in their child’s development. “I feel as though education is the main proponent in all of this, if I wasn’t educated enough in politics myself how could I influence my daughter in her future endeavors. How would she understand,” Lewis said.
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