Parkland Students and Families Flew to D.C. on Patriots' Plane for March for Our Lives

The New England Patriots are the latest to show their support to the survivors of the Parkland shooting.

The New England Patriots team plane arrives for Super Bowl LII
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Image via Getty/Icon Sportswire

The New England Patriots team plane arrives for Super Bowl LII

The New England Patriots are the latest to publicly show their support for the survivors of the Parkland shooting. Patriots owner Robert Kraft lent the official team plane to survivors to bring them to Washington D.C. for an anti-gun violence rally.

Around 200 teachers, students, and chaperones from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and nearby schools flew to D.C.  from Fort Lauderdale on Thursday in preparation for Saturday’s "March For Our Lives" against gun violence. According to the Boston Globe, the families of 17 victims of the shooting and some students who survived injuries were on the plane. There have been no reports of Patriots players present, and Kraft was not on the plane as well.

Patriots spokesman Stacey James said Kraft decided to lend out the plane when he was asked as a favor by former Arizona representative Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly.

Kelly said the students wanted to go to the march and they wanted to do what they could to make that happen. Kelly told the Washington Post, "Not only did their friends and teachers get shot and killed, other friends shot and injured... most of them, they had bullets flying over their heads. This is not fair that they have to deal with something like this at their age."

James has no further report "other than they took off and everyone was happy." The plane will bring the survivors and families back to Florida after the march. 

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