Parkland School Shooting Survivors Begin Nationwide Tour In Chicago

Saturday, June 16th 2018, 2:17 pm

By: News 9

Some survivors of the Valentine's Day shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, are taking their crusade for change on the road. The student activists kicked off a nationwide summer bus tour called "Road to Change" in Chicago on Friday alongside celebrities and gun violence survivors including Gabby Giffords.

"We're traveling around the country, not only to register people to vote, but also to serve as a megaphone for the people who are so often ignored," Parkland shooting survivor Cameron Kasky told CBS News' Adriana Diaz.

He said they're not pushing for change alone. People like 19-year-old Amani Johnson, a youth organizer in Chicago, feels her cause has been ignored for years.

"We never got any attention. We've had press conferences where no press showed up," Johnson said. "I just feel grateful that they've been able to share their platform with us."

The bus tour will include 50 stops in more than 20 states over the next two months. Kasky said their goal is less about partisan politics and more about simply getting young people to the polls.



"We'd be much happier to see the largest voter turnout in U.S. history than see a bunch of liberals get elected. We're not going around to tell people who to vote for, we're going out there to tell people to vote," Kasky said.

It's been a long road to their Road To Change. CBS News first met Kasky and his peers just days after the Parkland school massacre, and even then, their eyes were on the elections. That determination was followed by rallies, walkouts and a worldwide day of marches that flooded cities around the world.

But the school shootings continued.

"We said 'never again' knowing damn well it would happen again," Kasky said.

Though many are too young to vote, they plan to shape the election.

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