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Parkland Survivors to Hold Town Hall Meeting in Blacksburg & Other VA Stops

After the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland last February, survivors vowed to work for gun violence prevention. Several of them hit the road last month for their “Road to Change” tour.  This week they’ll stop in some Virginia towns, including Blacksburg, for a town hall gathering at the Lyric Theater.

Student leaders from Parkland High School, Virginia Tech, Radford, and local high schools will host a dialogue about gun violence in a town that is all too familiar with the problem.

Megan Doney is an English professor at New River Community College who’s helping coordinate the gathering. She became active as an advocate after gun violence hit close to home, after a student there shot two others. No one was killed. That time.

"I remember creating a document; post shooting lesson plans for the day that we came back to class with students, she says. “And I just thought that there’s no moment in graduate school that prepares you to write that document and that, I’m incredibly committed to the idea that no teacher should have to write that document."

Doney points out that the town hall meeting is a nonpartisan event.  All political leaders from southwest Virginia have been invited.

“This region of Virginia leads the state in suicides. Gun violence prevention is also about suicide prevention. That’s a huge part of this as well.”

The “Road to Change/March for Our Lives” movement is clear about its goals, which include, according to its website "standing up to the NRA."  But no one disputes that the path to gun violence prevention will take thoughtful and difficult discussion about the meaning of safety and how best to create it.

"I think that those of us who are concerned about this have to engage in some really challenging conversations with people who see things very differently," Doney says.  “And that’s hard. I think it’s hard for all of us.”

After their Blacksburg town hall, August 2nd, from 3:30 to 5pm, the Parkland survivors head to Charlottesville and then on to Fairfax for a rally at the headquarters of the National Rifle Association.

Robbie Harris is based in Blacksburg, covering the New River Valley and southwestern Virginia.