Lenox — The Berkshire Country Day School Grade 6-8 students will be participating in the National Day of Action Against Gun Violence, this Friday, April 20. The BCD group joins students across the U.S. in raising their voices in protest of gun violence in America. The date marks the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting that occurred at 10 a.m. on April 20, 1999.
The day will begin for Berkshire Country Day School with the 6th-8th grade students and their BCD teachers walking out of the buildings and engaging in 17 minutes of silence to commemorate and honor the 17 people who were shot and killed and the 14 others who were injured in the horrific act of mass violence on February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Following the 17 minutes of silence, the Grade 6-8 students, along with many teachers, will “march” from BCD to Lenox Center, about 2.5 miles from the school’s campus.
BCD’s involvement was initially suggested by a current 8th grade student and the school, and since then, students, under the leadership of Student Council Advisor Sarah Pitcher-Hoffman and Associate Head of School Leigh Doherty, have been in discussions for several weeks, imagining how the day could look and how they could best share their message. They posed questions, shared concerns, brainstormed ideas, and have created a body of work including signs, chants, poems, and speeches to deliver upon arrival to Lilac Park in Lenox.
In an interest to grow their numbers, and to make a larger impact, the Berkshire Country Day School students have decided and were encouraged to invite neighbors, siblings, friends, and other students they may know and who may be available, especially with the public school vacation week, to meet them at Lilac Park and share in the event.
Berkshire Country Day School is coordinating with the Lenox Chief of Police, Steve O’Brien, as well as Stockbridge Chief Darrell Fennelly and the Lenox Town Hall to ensure safety measures and to involve the community with a hope to help the students’ messages to be heard, to support their efforts toward activism, and to promote the public view of Berkshire Country Day School as a positive and inspirational one.
Participating students come from many Berkshire and Columbia County communities, including Pittsfield, Great Barrington, Alford, Housatonic, Lee, Lenox, Monterey, Otis, Richmond, Sheffield, South Egremont, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge, Massachusetts and Chatham, East Chatham, Ghent, Spencertown, Craryville, and Hudson, New York.
