STUDENTS SEEK ANTI-GUN PLEDGE; JACKSON PREPARES FOR DAY OF NATIONAL CONCERN

JACKSON -- A junior high school student is leading efforts in Jackson to prevent gun violence from invading the schools.

Jennifer Rhodes, 13, an eighth-grader at Jackson Junior High, is spearheading a pledge drive in Jackson that asks students to promise they will never carry a gun to school, will never resolve disputes with a gun and will use their influence with friends to keep them from resolving disputes with guns.

The drive is part of a larger national effort to reduce the incidents of gun violence at schools and among students. Organizers of the national effort hope to get 1 million students to sign the pledge Oct. 8 on the Day of National Concern about Young People and Gun Violence.

Rhodes said she became interested in the national campaign after reading an article in Girl's Life magazine. The article was written by a teen-age girl who saw her favorite teacher shot and killed at a middle school dance by a classmate.

"What surprised me was how no one was expecting it. You never know when it will happen," Rhodes said.

The article concluded with suggestions on how teen-agers could help end gun violence. A Internet Web site address for the Day of National Concern was included.

Rhodes gathered information off the site and took it to her principal. She also sent the information to Jackson Mayor Paul Sander and to the school superintendent.

A friend also has been contacting area churches asking them to become involved in the effort.

The result will be a public information and planning meeting at 7 tonight in the community meeting room on the third floor of Jackson City Hall. The purpose of the meeting is to plan for Jackson's participation in the Day of National Concern and the student pledge drive.

"We want everyone to have a chance to participate," Rhodes said.

Kyle Mabuce, history teacher and student council sponsor at Jackson Junior High School, said the student council at the junior high will be planning activities for Oct. 8 in hopes of getting students to sign the pledge.

"Last year there were way too many incidents of gun violence in school," Mabuce said.

During the last academic year four incidents of gun violence in public schools made national headlines.

In October, a 16-year-old high school student in Pearl, Miss., allegedly stabbed his mother, then went to school and fatally shot two of his classmates.

Two months later, two students were killed and six others wounded following an informal prayer meeting at Heath High School in Paducah, Ky., when a 14-year-old freshman allegedly drew a handgun in a crowded school lobby and opened fire.

A 13-year-old boy and an 11-year-old boy were accused in March of killing four students and a teacher and wounding 11 others at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Ark.

Then in May, a 15-year-old high school student in Springfield, Ore., whom authorities say was angry at being suspended for bringing a weapon to school, returned to school with a gun and shot and killed a classmate.

Mabuce said incidents like those have led some schools to use metal detectors to prevent students from bringing weapons into school.

"We'd hate to see it come to that here," he said. "We like to think that it's safe here, and we want to keep it that way."

The Day of National Concern was established two years ago following a bipartisan resolution in the U.S. Senate.