Do you like learning about how to protect our schools better? Well, look no further than the Students Demand Action Club (SDA). SDA is a student-led organization dedicated to limiting gun violence and teaching students to make our school a safer place. SDA is a nationally recognized organization but was started at Warren by Donovan Pope, Sema Asmar, Olivia Suarez, and teacher sponsor Ms. Rodino. The club started in the fall semester of 2022 and has been booming ever since. This past summer, SDA had booths during Gurnee days with Be Smart to engage the community by sharing information about proper gun ownership. 

Donovan Pope, one of the club’s co-founders, talked about the reasons for starting the club:

“I’ve always had an interest in current events and world issues. I remember seeing all of the news stories of the ‘latest mass shooting’ and I couldn’t help but think of the possibility of my family, my friends or myself being in such tragic situations. I knew I wanted to get involved in something that could spark some sort of change in our community. I wanted to help start a chapter of Students Demand Action at Warren and I knew this was my chance to create change.” 

Olivia Suarez, a senior, discussed how helpful Ms. Rodino was in developing the club and how the club officially got started. “Ms. Rodino has been super helpful with letting us know about surrounding community events and leading us in the right direction with our goals. It took us the entire first semester of of 2022 to get get registered as a club with the school and prepare our plans for how we wanted the club to work.” 

As of right now, they are currently working with Dr. Patrick Keely and the deans at the Almond Campus to pioneer a program to reduce the occurrence of conflicts among peers. In the upcoming months, they plan on hosting a voter drive so that the younger generation will have a say in the legislation passed within their community.