George and Amal Clooney donate $500K to students organizing anti-gun protests

NEW YORK – Actor George Clooney and his wife, Amal Clooney, are donating $500,000 to students organizing nationwide marches against gun violence, and they say they’ll also attend next month’s planned protests.

In a statement released Tuesday, the couple says they’re inspired by the “courage and eloquence” of the survivors-turned-activists from Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

READ MORE: U.S. students pushing for gun control ‘hijacked by left-wing groups,’ says CNN panelist

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Seventeen people were killed at the school and others wounded when a former student went on a rampage with an assault rifle. Students are mobilizing a March 24 march in Washington and elsewhere to urge lawmakers to enact tougher gun control.

WATCH: Students go where U.S. politicians don’t, by attacking the NRA

2:34 Students go where U.S. politicians don’t: attacking the NRA

The Clooneys say they’re donating the money in the names of their eight-month-old twins Ella and Alexander. The couple also says the family plans to “stand side by side” with students next month.