TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — In the wake of the slew of school threats that have been made in recent months, not just here in Southern Arizona, but across the country, some community members on the southside participated in a “March for Peace” on Saturday, October 19.
After a brief ceremony, students, parents and community members made the march from Santa Clara Elementary School to Mission Manor Elementary School.
“Our Board President, Becky Quintero and I had just been talking about the violence that has been occurring not only here in Tucson, in the community but really across the nation,” Sunnyside Unified School District Superintendent Jose Gastelum said.
That’s when the idea for the march was born.
“One of the things we wanted to do is create awareness, bring people together and get people reflecting on what they can do and what we can do as a collective group to build peace in the community,” Gastelum said.
It’s something they want to instill in kids at a young age in the classroom. They have a “peace pole” to help with that.
“We’re going to pass it around class to class and just talk about peace,” Mission Manor Principal, Bryan Huie said. “You know there’s a lot of violence, gun violence has gone on, there’s a lot of cyber violence and things like that. We just want to continue to educate not only our kids but our community about peace, the peace and love that we all need to do each and every day.”
After the march, a tree was planted at Mission Manor, but it symbolized something more.
“Kids had an opportunity to write a note, a peace note and so that was buried with the tree,” Gastelum said. “So this tree will symbolize today’s event, but not only is it a one-time event, but something that we need to think about every day.”
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Madison Thomas joined KGUN 9 in July of 2023 as a multimedia journalist. She graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2023 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has lived in Arizona her entire life and grew up in Douglas. Madison is thrilled to share the stories from the community she grew up in. Share your story ideas and important issues with Madison by emailing madison.thomas@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
