About Us

Global Student Square is a youth-led student journalism organization that partners with student journalists and news organizations worldwide to create digital space, tools and training for youth to speak up and solve tomorrow’s pressing global problems. After the Feb. 14, 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, we resolved that nothing could be or should be more important than helping young people to add their voices to the growing national debate over gun violence. That’s why we reached out to The Trace, why we were so excited to help them develop their vision for a student journalism-powered project, and why we’re so honored to have had the opportunity to develop the curriculum for “Since Parkland.”

We also want to thank the students of Newsroom by the Bay, who piloted the project last July and did so much to help shape the curriculum and make sure that youth voice was at the center of the stories we produced.

We hope that that the resources at this curriculum page will help students, teachers and schools who want to engage with the important topic of gun violence and how it affects young people in particular. We’re also eager to hear from educators and students about how it works and how we can add to or improve it going forward. All of the lesson plans and resources here are free to use but we ask that you attribute them to Global Student Square if and when you use them, and that you link back to us here.

We look forward to your feedback and suggestions! Please contact us:

Photo & Video Credits

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Students at Oakland Technical High School in Oakland, California, used data from the Gun Violence Archive on Nov. 8, 2018, to identify the stories they would write for Since Parkland. Photo by Christian Bardell/Oakland Technical High School/used with permission.

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Students at Oakland Technical High School’s Race, Policy and Law Academy listen to a presentation on gun violence and Since Parkland by senior project editor Beatrice Motamedi. Photo by Christian Bardell/Oakland Technical High School/used with permission.

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Teacher Don Bott leads students in a discussion about the purpose of obituaries during a class at Amos Alonzo Stagg High School in Stockton, California, on Sept. 5, 2018. Screenshot by Global Student Square staff.

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Students from Newsroom by the Bay reached out to student journalists about the Since Parkland project in this video produced in September 2018. Video by Finn Mennuti, Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, California.

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Student writers for Since Parkland take a moment to share their published stories in the journalism classroom at York Community High School in Elmhurst, Illinois, on Feb. 20, 2019. From left to right: CeCe Lampa, Grace Moriarty, Paige Szipsky, Gracie Weinstein, Mary Kett and Murphy McFarlane. Photo by Michael Moriarty/used with permission.

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Student journalists look at the Since Parkland website in their high school's newsroom. (From left to right) Sara Stemmler, Lila Taylor and Disha Chatterjee are three of the 200 high school students who wrote portraits of minors who were killed by gun violence in America in the one year since the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas on Feb. 14, 2018 in Parkland, Florida. Credit: Michael Mellinger

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