LT’s newest club looking to help prevent school violence

Members of the new Lyons Township High School SAVE (Students Against Violence Everywhere) Promise Club present Principal Dr. Waterman and Assistant Principal Therese Nelson with signatures of more than 600 students, who took a pledge to prevent gun violence in school.

Pictured left to right are South Campus Associate Principal Therese Nelson, sophomore Molly Davies, of LaGrange, sophomore Mary Beck, of LaGrange, freshman Quinn Riordan, of LaGrange, sophomore Chloe Korst, of Western Springs, sophomore Jacqui O’Malley, of Western Springs, sophomore Ella Finnegan, of LaGrange Park and Principal Brian Waterman.

The SAVE Promise Club is a student run club associated with the Sandy Hook Promise organization, a national non-profit founded and led by family members whose children were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. Its main focus is to prevent gun violence and other forms of violence before it happens by educating and mobilizing schools, parents and communities on mental health and wellness programs that identify, intervene and help at risk individuals.

SAVE Promise Club is a place for young people across the country to show their leadership, creativity and passion for protecting their friends, schools and communities from violence before it happens.

The SAVE club was recently established at LT and is currently in pilot status. In February, the SAVE club and the SC Civics classes started a non-violence pledge form that students signed. The pledge that they signed stated:

• I will never bring a gun to school
• I will never use a gun to settle a personal problem or dispute
• I will use my influence with my friends to keep them from using guns to settle disputes