K-12 in 2020: Virtual Active-Shooter Drills

In the pandemic year of 2020, children’s homes became their classrooms as America’s K-12 education went online. The curriculum included school active-shooter drills, required by law in most states. Lesson objective: in America’s gun culture, even your kitchen table isn’t safe. Will this be on the test?

More:

“Active-Shooter Drills Look Pretty Weird Over Zoom,” Monica Chin, The Verge

“School Shooting Drills Have Gone Virtual,” Dan Kois, Slate

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Florida (of course): Give Teachers Guns

Florida’s “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission,” largely composed of Sunshine State political hacks, submitted a report urging the arming of public school teachers. What could possibly go wrong?

More:

“Parkland safety commission’s solution to prevent school shootings? More guns in schools.” Tess Owen, VICE News

“Parkland commission recommends teachers be allowed to carry guns,”Jamiles Lartey, The Guardian

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More Than a Single March

Gun violence marches this weekend span the entire country, and over 800 places around the world.

What can be done? The Parkland students have some ideas.

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School Shootings

What students think about school shootings. A Vox video.

More:

“Parkland Students: Our manifesto to fix America’s gun laws,” The Guardian

Follow the March for Our Lives with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Eagle Eye

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187,000 students experienced school gun violence since Columbine

More than 187,000 students at nearly 200 U.S. schools have experienced gun violence during school hours since the 1999 Columbine shooting. A Washington Post analysis found that there have been 10 school shootings a year since Columbine. There have already been 11 shootings in 2018.

Read the analysis:

“Scarred by school shootings,” John Woodrow Cox and Steven Rich, Washington Post

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Guns for Teachers

“It’s no wonder the NRA likes this solution — it involves buying hundreds of thousands of guns, and that’s their solution to everything.” — John Oliver

More on this topic here.

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Trump School Safety Plan

After last week’s tragic shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, President Trump determined how to stop  further school shootings: give teachers guns. The idea was met with horror and roundly condemned by the teachers’ union, law enforcement, military veterans, individual teachers, and students.

Mr. Trump claims that 20% of K-12 teachers are military veterans, but the number is closer to 1%. The president says that “gun-adept” teacher vets should get a “small bonus” for packing heat in the classroom, and claims he can find the money to do so, at a time when teachers have to pay for student supplies out of their own pockets.

More:

Want to know why arming instructors is a bad idea? Hear from a former teacher,”  Monica Rhor, Houston Chronicle 

“What happens to teaching and learning if educators holster 9mm Glocks on their waistbands?” Valerie Strauss, Washington Post

“’No way’: Three teachers explain why Trump’s proposal to arm teachers won’t work,” Heather Timmons and Caitlin Hu, Quartz

“Gov. Rick Scott opposed to arming teachers with firearms.” Jeffrey Solochek, Tampa Bay Times

“Former RNC chair: Trump suggestion to arm teachers is ‘delusional.’” Brandon Carter, The Hill

“Trump Blames Gun-Free Zones for School Shootings, Echoing Myth Spread by NRA,” Robert Mackey, The Intercept

“Trump’s push to arm teachers gives the NRA what it wants and highlights GOP radicalization,” James Hohmann, Washington Post

“Arming teachers isn’t just a ridiculous idea. It’s a deliberate distraction.” German Lopez, Vox

Update:

“Seaside High teacher accidentally fires gun in class, students injured,” Amy Larson, KBSW-TV

Related:

“5 Ways the Trump Budget Undermines Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Efforts,” Chelsea Parsons and Scott Sargrad, Center for American Progress

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Security Firm Lobbyist Runs NRA School Gun Program

When 26 school children and educators were murdered in Connecticut last month, the National Rifle Association’s response called for government to spend billions putting armed guards in every American school, putting kids in the crossfire. Heading the NRA’s “National School Shield Program“: Asa Hutchinson, who sits on the board of Pinkerton Government Services, which stands to reap huge profits from such a program. Mr. Hutchinson’s law firm has also represented the trigger-happy Blackwater mercenary army, shadowy Iraq war engineers SAIC, and Point Blank Body Armor.

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