Betsy DeVos was questioned about whether she would maintain gun-free zones around schools. She said that should be left to states. She was questioned by Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, where the Sandy Hook massacre occurred in Newtown. DeVos said that some schools might need guns to protect against grizzly bears. She also said she would do whatever Trump wanted on the issue. She expressed sympathy for anyone killed by guns.
A group called States United tweeted:
“U.S. school shootings since 2013: 210. Grizzly bear attacks at American schools since 2013: 0. #DeVosHearing…”
Crooks and Liars said she “waffled,” as she did with most questions.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s only a matter of time before the NRA defends the right to arm bears …
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Great comment:
Oh, my! Lions and Tigers and arm-bearing bears,
Public school education going Down the Down Stairs
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Hey now, I resemble that description. Leave us bears out of this DeVos nonsense.
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Franken and Casey pinned her to the wall and showed how ignorant and how doctrinaire she is. She cannot define common ed language, and she does not denounce rape on campuses and justice for victims. Disgusting.
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correction. re rape and victims…before Duane and FLERP condemn me. Meant that she was not in support of justice for victims as with the Casey legislation on the issue.
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For some weird reason, the word kakistocracy keeps popping up in my cerebellum like some hand grenade. What’s next? Will she recommend turning the former public schools into shooting ranges for kindergarteners?
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Many school children have shooting ranges in their backyards. Unfortunately not many of those children live in rural areas.
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ouch
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Well, if they had gone back a couple years to 2011, there was actually a Grizzly attack on students of the National Outdoor Leadership School, though the students were actually outdoors in the Alaskan wilderness and not in a school building. They were also away from the teachers so whether the teacher had a gun is irrelevant to that particular case.
Also, grizzlies are very difficult to incapacitate with a gun unless you are a very good shot. Otherwise you might just tick it off more.
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Hey
Here’s an idea.
Let’s use facing off with a mama grizzlyas atest for Secretary of Ed.
No guns allowed. Just wits.
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Come on SDP, that wouldn’t be fair. Need some handicapping (not that I would expect DeVos to know anything about that subject). Gotta give DeVos something to work with because, well, there just isn’t enough there now as it is.
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For wits go to Twitter and take a look at #potentialgrizzlies .
And a teacher at the Wyoming school DeVos referenced debunked the entire notion:
https://t.co/dWneudD0Tf
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DeVos is totally NUTS. What is she “high” on? Oh…$$$$$$$$$$$….and power.
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“A nation at risk”
The number one problem in schools
Is grizzly-bears breaking the rules
Attacking the teachers
And hacking the bleachers
And leaving their grizzly bear stools
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giggle giggle giggle
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Betsy is ignorant and arrogant.
Click the link and discover where there are real Grizzly Bears in the U.S.
http://geology.com/stories/13/bear-areas/
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At least she didn’t say polar bears — or suburban moms.
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… or mama bears (as in “Momma Bears defend and support children and public schools” at http://www.mamabears.org)
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this link instead… http://www.mommabears.org/
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We might all need to have firearms to protect ourselves from Betsy and most of Littlefingers Donald Trump’s cabinet.
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Yes, a whacky Devos response about bears and guns. Also, I was taken aback by Lamar Alexander’s blatantly obvious over-to-top behavior to protect DeVos and to shoehorn her in as USED Secretary. What was all that about?
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Lamar is a very smart guy. He knows she is dumb as a rock about education issues other than the glories of vouchers and charters. He protected her from questions that would make her look bad. She looked bad anyway.
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If he knows that “she is dumb as a rock about education issues” why the hell was he lying and prevaricating all evening? I thought Alexander was one that supposedly had some ethics. My bad for thinking that.
And his antics are a microcosm of what is wrong with the current system we have in place and the unethical bastards that are a part of it-including the Dims.
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Why? So he is protecng the Republican brand and a major doner, even at the cost of putting someone dumb as a rock in charge of the US Department of Education. Hell of a job, Lamar.
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I actually feel bad for liberal and Democratic ed reformers.
They gave Republicans everything they wanted during Obama’s two terms and when Republicans took power they rolled right over the “liberal” ed reformers and put in the far Right DeVos.
Liberal ed reformers got screwed. They’re now in the position where if they want to remain in the ed reform club they’ll have to defend the Trump Administration attacks on public schools, labor unions, gay students, women, whatever.
That hearing was bad and discredits the whole “movement” but it will get much, much worse. DeVos isn’t going to be welcome in any public school in the country when she starts ramming thru her agenda and she’ll be the face of the ed reform “movement”
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“DeVos isn’t going to be welcome in any public school in the country. . . ”
Au contraire, she’ll be welcome with open arms as almost all public school teachers and adminimals fawn over celebrities like the vast majority of other Americans.
“Oh, look aren’t we just peachy keen have THEBetsy come grace our school with her presence.”
Here’s a bet: No school will have the guts to deny her presence as part of a spectacle and they will actively promote that spectacle.
God save the queen!
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I think it’s past time for public school parents to get much, much more demanding of federal public employees like DeVos.
She should have to retract her statement that public schools are “dead ends” before we allow her to enter one of our schools. If an Ed Secretary had said that about charter schools she would never be nominated or confirmed.
Why are our schools treated so shabbily? Why is it okay for ed reform adults to use this demeaning and insulting language when referring to our children’s schools? Charter and private schools would never stand for it. Public schools shouldn’t either.
She should apologize.
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Being a billionaire means never having to say sorry. Ideology explains the world and sycophancy dictates personal and professional relationships.
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She strikes me as someone who has “grizzly” views in most of her “thought” processes.
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We have black bears in Jersey.
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Abigail, Arm the students and teachers!
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My younger daughter, a Park Ranger at Yosemite, spent 45 minutes of a hot afternoon this past summer trailing a black bear. She came across the animal on a trail too close to people and began to harass the bear so as to scare it off. She phoned it in to the bear patrol, but stayed on the scene until they could arrive, by which time she had treed the bear. At 5’4″and 115 pounds, she was armed with her flat top hat, her uniform and a shouting voice cultivated in an inner-city public school system. SOP for a Park Ranger.
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“DeVos isn’t going to be welcome in any public school in the country….”
WHAT public schools?
They’ll be long gone, sold & privatized before she’ll even step foot out of the D.o.Ed. faster than you can say, “50 public schools closed in Chicago.”
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