Women’s March Leader Fueling Parkland Student Activist Protests

A leader of the Women’s March LA Foundation filed for the permit to organize Parkland, Florida, students who are advocating for gun control.

Deena Katz, co-executive director of the Women’s March LA Foundation, filed an application for a permit with the National Park Service for a March 24 rally called March for Our Lives, which is described as a student-led protest, reports the Washington Times.

The Times reports:

“March For Our Lives is created by students across the country who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too familiar,” Ms. Katz said in her application, repeating the website’s mission statement.

Plans for the march include 14 jumbotrons, 20 tents, 2,000 chairs, 2,000 portable toilets, a press riser and 20 buses.

“In the tragic wake of the seventeen lives brutally cut short in Florida, politicians are telling us that now is not the time to talk about guns,” said the application. “March For Our Lives believes the time is now.”

The March for Our Lives is reportedly led by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School junior Cameron Kasky, a student at the Parkland, Florida, school at which 17 people lost their lives during a shooting rampage on February 14.

A GoFundMe page created by Kasky has already raised $2.2 million of its $2.5 million goal.

“I created the #NeverAgain movement as well as the March for Our Lives. Our team has been working hard since day one,” the student says on the fundraiser’s page. “The funds will be spent on the incredibly difficult and expensive process that is organizing a march like this. We have people making more specific plans, but for now know that this is for the march and everything left over will be going to the victims’ funds.”

“Sister marches” are also being organized in cities around the country, many with the involvement of gun-control advocacy groups, such as the Colorado Coalition Against Gun Violence, and Moms Demand Action, which has the support of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

USA Today also reported that Women’s March organizers called for a “17-minute walkout by teachers nationwide on March 14,” the one-month anniversary of the Parkland shooting.

“Organize sit-ins, teach-ins, walkouts, marches,” Diane Ravitch, defender of public education, has urged, according to USA Today. “It’s time to let our legislators know that they must stand up to the gun lobby.”

The Women’s March LA Foundation did not immediately respond to Breitbart News’ request for comment on the extent to which Katz is assisting the student protests.

The Times reports Women’s March LA spokeswoman Michelle Margolis said Katz is working on the March for Our Lives event in her personal capacity.

“[T]he march is student led and Deena is acting at their behest to help with paperwork, being these logistics are out of their wheelhouse,” Margolis said. “Also to be clear, Deena is helping as an individual. [T]he women’s march is not associated.”

Despite reports from BuzzFeed and Time Magazine that have portrayed the March for Our Lives as a student-led event that is being organized “from their parents’ living rooms,” former Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke tweeted the event is “well organized,” and likely funded by leftwing billionaire George Soros:

Katz is also the Emmy-nominated co-executive producer of Dancing with the Stars, and the producer of Real Time with Bill Maher, and Whose Line Is It Anyway.

Celebrities such as Julianne Moore, Justin Bieber, and Alyssa Milano have all lent their support to the March for Our Lives event. George and Amal Clooney have donated $500,000 to the event.

Partners of the Women’s March LA Foundation include ACLU Southern California, Muslims for Progressive Justice, Bend the Arc Jewish Action, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, Black Young Democrats, Center for Powerful Public Schools, City of Los Angeles Office of the City Clerk (Voter Registration), Dream Alliance, Emily’s List, Equality California, Planned Parenthood LA, Pussy Hat Project, and Women’s Political Caucus.

***Update*** Breitbart News received the following statement “on background” in response to a request for comment from the Women’s March LA Foundation regarding Katz’s involvement in the Parkland student protests:

Deena Katz, who worked on the Women’s March, is helping organize the March For Our Lives. But she is doing so on her own as an individual, not on behalf of the Women’s March, which is not involved in this event. The students had reached out to Deena for advice because they were aware of her work with the Women’s March. But she will not be speaking at the March.

While the March for Our Lives is a student-driven movement, led by and for young people, the students knew from the start that they would need help organizing the logistics for the March as well as managing the avalanche of media requests they’ve received. So they’ve asked adults they know and trust to help them in these areas.