Local teens help organize town hall meeting to speak about serious topics like gun violence and immigration

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A group of local high school students met at the Government Center in Uptown Thursday night to talk about some pretty serious issues. It was part of a Town Hall they organized with the help of Charlotte City Councilwoman Tiawana Brown. Several Charlotte-area resources and organizations were on-hand to also let the teens know about their services, including CMPD, the YMCA, Workforce Development, For The Struggle and more. The teens talked about topics including immigration and gun violence.

West Charlotte High School student Christopher Abreu told the audience, “I have friends in my school, in my community, who, as soon as they were hearing about the spottings of ICE in our local communities, (or) at my job…their parents made them drop everything. They they had to abandon their education, abandon their friends, and just go back to their countries.”

West Charlotte High School student Bobbie Forrest talked about gun violence, saying, “I lost a good friend of mine to gun violence. I know someone who lost his sister. I know people who have lost their brothers, their mothers, their sons, their daughters, their cousins, their baby mamas. Whatever. I’ve seen people lose people.”

City councilwoman Tiawanna Brown said, “Bringing them (the teens) into our committees. Listen to their voice and writing it into policy, the things that they’re asking us to do. That’s the seriousness of this.”

Brown says that is goal of the Town Hall: to let these young people know they are listening to their concerns and taking action.