‘Our kids don’t deserve to die like this’: March For Our Lives set for Saturday in DeKalb

DeKALB - Area teachers and organizers invite community members to join them for a March For Our Lives event in DeKalb Saturday to combat gun violence and begin discussions on gun control.

The march will take place 10 to 11 a.m. starting at the Band Shell at Hopkins Park, 1403 Sycamore Road in DeKalb. The march is one of many expected throughout the country Saturday in collaboration with the March For Our Lives nationwide initiative, which advocates among other things for an end to gun violence, updated gun control legislation and policy targeting gun lobbyists.

Longtime special education teacher at Littlejohn Elementary School in DeKalb Mary Lynn Buckner of DeKalb and area business owner and hair stylist Renae Stevenson Lindenmayer organized the DeKalb march.

“After the Texas shooting, I can’t stand it anymore,” Lindenmayer said. “Our kids don’t deserve to live like this, and they certainly don’t deserve to die like this.”

The March For Our Lives organization was started in 2018 by survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. During the Feb. 14, 2018, Florida high school shooting, a 19-year-old former student of the school murdered 17 people and injured 17 others. The Florida shooting occurred exactly 10 years after a former Northern Illinois University student entered Cole Hall on NIU campus in DeKalb and fatally shot five students, injuring 17 others, before shooting himself.

March For Our Lives hosts national events and offers on opportunity for local communities to host their own. DeKalb is expected to be among hundreds of communities across the country marching Saturday, including a national event in Washington D.C.

Among its policy priorities, the March For Our Lives organization advocates for an end to what it calls gun glorification, political apathy, poverty, armed supremacy and mental health crises. The organization also asks for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, legislative changes to who can own a gun and a national gun buy-back program.

Bucker and Lindenmayer said the idea for a DeKalb march started shortly after the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde when an 18-year-old is said to have walked into the school building and killed 19 fourth graders and two teachers.

Buckner had a hair appointment with Lindenmayer where they discussed what they could do to make a change. Later that day, Buckner sent a link to the March For Our Lives organization to Lindenmayer, who signed them up on the organization’s website and created a Facebook event page to spread the word.

Since its creation, the page has received more than 200 responses from people indicating they’ll attend, Buckner said, and many strangers asking how they can help.

“It was just two ladies in the hair salon wanting to make a change,” Buckner said. “And it blossomed into this.”

Buckner said the community response she has gotten tells her the issues of gun control and gun violence has struck a nerve for many. Lindenmayer said she believes the school safety measures in place need to be constantly reevaluated.

“We can’t wait for another shooting to happen,” Lindenmayer said. “We need to be working on this diligently every single day.”

Lindenmayer said the DeKalb community knows first hand how horrifying it is, referencing the 2008 shooting at NIU. She said she believes another incident could happen again, unless a change is made.

Lindenmayer, a mother of four children all under the age of 6, said that while March For Our Lives events are often youth-led, she encourages all interested regardless of age to come out Saturday. Her children won’t be attending, however.

“I want to keep them young and unaware of this reality for as long as possible,” Lindenmayer said.

Lindenmayer’s 5-year-old isn’t untouched by reality, however: Lindenmayer said her daughter experienced her first ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) training this past school year. The national standard trains people on how to react during an active shooter situation.

Lindenmayer said she believes it’s not acceptable to put sole responsibility on children to figure out how to protect themselves. Rather, adults should do more, she said, and hopes to bring the community together for dialogue, and to figure out next steps.

As a schoolteacher, Buckner said worry is always in the back of her mind these days, whether it’s navigating potential escape routes or fear for the safety of her young students. She recalled a recent conversation having to explain to her elementary students why they should hide in a bathroom stall if a shooter came to school.

“These are the conversations we have with children,” Buckner said.

It’s important to keep talking about tragedies however, she said, if only to influence change.

“My goal is to keep this topic of gun violence in the forefront,” Buckner said. “I’m not going to let anyone forget about it.”