Malden's 8th-Graders Work Towards Ending Gun Violence

Courtesy photo.

MALDEN, MA - City eighth-graders from the Forestdale Middle School have been working towards finding a solution to gun violence, and will present their findings to civic leaders and students on Tuesday at the Massachusetts State House in Boston.

The students are a part of Generation Citizen, an action civics educational program that partners with classrooms across the country, according to Patrick Beaudry, a volunteer with Generation Citizen.

The organization has been working in Greater Boston classrooms like the classroom in Malden to coach students through their local civics endeavors.

As part of their civics studies on how to solve gun violence, Students talked to Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson in November. Mr. Jackson partnered with the Boston Police Department to institute “district-based violence prevention meetings” in Boston. The students spoke to Mr. Jackson via Agora, an online town hall platform..

The eighth-graders learned that the violence prevention meetings convene bi-weekly in Boston’s most violence-prone city council districts, and allow city councilors, police department representatives, community organizations, and community members to review gun and gang-violence incidents and develop and implement violence reduction plans.

Meanwhile, the Forestdale eighth-graders have also been collaborating with Malden Mayor Gary Christenson and the Malden City Council to replicate this model, and institute district-based violence prevention meetings in Malden.

In addition from Forestdale, eighth-graders from all the city’s schools, will also be at the Statehouse, according to the school principal.

Students from Boston, Melrose, and Lowell, and are scheduled to address topics such as veterans services, homelessness, substance abuse, and college affordability.

Civics Day will also include over 100 local business and community leaders to serve as guest judges. The keynote address for Civics Day will be provided by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.

The local Generation Citizen students will join students and community leaders in their respective states from New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Providence, R.I. to participate in Civics Day.