March for Our Lives: Richland joins worldwide protest

Hundreds of Tri-City teens and others are expected to participate in Saturday’s school safety march in Richland.

March for Our Lives-Tri-Cities is a “sibling march” to the national anti-gun violence rally predicted to draw 500,000 people to Washington, D.C.

The Richland event starts at 3 p.m. at the fingernail stage at Howard Amon Park. It’ll feature speakers — largely local teens — and include a march along George Washington Way, looping back to the park.

It’s organized by a group of Richland High students who say they’re tired of feeling scared at school.

“School is supposed to be a safe place. You’re supposed to be there to learn. You shouldn’t be looking behind your back like, ‘am I going to get shot today?’” Isabella Robertson, 18, said earlier this month.

The local march is nonpartisan, with people of all political stripes welcome.

The teen organizers are pushing for two specific things: Stricter background checks, and wider and better access to mental health care.

“Something needs to happen. (School violence) happens too much. It shouldn’t be normalized. We shouldn’t be like, oh, another school shooting,” said organizer Logan Jackson, 18.

She and her team — which, along with Robertson, includes students Dylan Tonn, Janae Wideman, Rachel Wilson-Bates and Elise Adkisson — answered a call put out by survivors of the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting in February that left 17 students and staffers dead.

The Parkland teens are organizing the national March for Our Lives and asked peers around the country to join them in activism.

Hundreds of sibling marches are registered across the country and world.

The local march is happening on a busy day in Richland.

The Arc of Tri-Cities is holding a March for Respect event earlier in the day at John Dam Plaza to advocate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Controversial U.S. Senate candidate Joey Gibson also has said he’ll be near the plaza at the same time for a meet-and-greet. He’d planned to hold the event a Kennewick hotel, but it denied him the space after being inundated with phone calls.

Tonn, 16, said he’s helping with the local March for Our Lives because he wants his future children to be safe in school. He and his peers are determined.

“That’s where the change is going to come from,” Tonn said. “It’s not going to come from adults right now. It’s going to come from the new generation.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2018 at 5:48 PM with the headline "March for Our Lives: Richland joins worldwide protest."