Parkland students join Chicago activists in protest

CHICAGO – Two students at a Florida high school where a gunman shot and killed 17 people are joining Chicago activists who oppose the planned construction of a $95 million police and fire training academy on the city’s West Side.

At a rally at City Hall on Monday, Alex Wind and Sofie Whitney — students at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland— voiced their support for activists who are say the money would be better spent on desperately needed programs that directly help people in some of the city’s most impoverished neighbourhoods.

Wind said the gunfire that erupted on Feb. 14 at the school is an “‘everyday problem in this city” and that a training facility is not what the city needs to address the problems facing the city.