by Christine Schenk
Three Catholic students helped organize Cleveland's nonviolent march and rally against gun violence March 24.
Grace Kelley and Jane Roche, both 17-year-old students from St. Joseph Academy, and Sam Hoag, an 18-year-old student from St. Ignatius High School, 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, Beaumont, Magnificat, Villa Angela-St. Joseph, Gilmour Academy and Walsh Jesuit.
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."