SPEAK OUT, from page 1 School district deals with loss
By Daily Press staff
In response to the violence area youth have dealt with over the past few years, most recently the murder of a high school student last November, the school district is asking students to formally speak out.
As a follow-up to the community peace vigil on Dec. 17, which was partly in response to 15-year-old Deanna Maran’s murder, the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District is sponsoring a “youth speakout” on Tuesday, Jan. 29, from 7-9 p.m. in the Santa Monica High School cafeteria. The high school is located at 601 Pico Blvd.
Adults and teachers know that youth often feel their concerns about violence are not always heard by their elders. The event is planned as an opportunity for youth to speak to the community about what they think.
The ultimate goal is to open the lines of communication and end violence, which repeatedly devastates the lives of children, families and the community.
The December peace rally and candle light procession from St. Anne’s Catholic Church on Colorado to Douglas Park on Wilshire Boulevard was designed to bring awareness to the multiple tragic teen deaths the city has experienced in recent years.
Maran was stabbed to death at a party in West Los Angeles. At the beginning of the school year, a recent Olympic High School graduate was shot in Venice. And last year three Santa Monica-Malibu Unified high school students died tragically, one from suicide.
“Will we not let our children die violent deaths,” said Santa Monica-Malibu Unified Superintendent John Deasy said to residents at the peace rally. “This is a beginning to show our children that we believe in them and that we are listening.”
For more information on the “youth speakout,” call Kathy McTaggart at (310) 450-8338.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 24, 2002. Read the original PDF.