Students!
Parents! Grandparents!
Teachers! Principals! School board members! Staff!
Friends!
Citizens!
Organize now for a national action against gun violence on April 20!
Take the pledge to participate in the action!
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/national-day-of-action-against-gun-violence-in-schools
Join the National Day for Action to Protect Students and Schools from Gun Violence!
No more murders in schools!
Students, teachers, parents, families, members of the community—join together, and you decide what works best in your community. Walk out, strike, sit-in, teach-in, protest, demonstrate, encircle the school with linked arms, March to your legislators’ offices. Be creative. Let your legislators and other elected officials know: It is time to act now to protect students, staff and schools.
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. But they change nothing. What’s needed now is legislation to stop the carnage. Weapons of war belong in the hands of trained military and police, not civilians, not children.
This action is sponsored by the Network for Public Education, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the BATS, and many more organizations that care about the safety of our children and our educators.
Please take the pledge to join this national action on April 20.
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/national-day-of-action-against-gun-violence-in-schools
If your organization wants to sign on as a sponsor of the National Day of Action to Protect Our Students and Schools, please contact Carol Burris of the Network for Public Education.
Cburris@networkforpubliceducation.org
David Berliner shook everyone out of their lethargy and state of shock by proposing a national teachers’ strike. Many people loved the idea, but more than a few teachers pointed out that they would be fired if they went out on strike. Lots of people came up with alternatives. Some wanted to exclude elementary schools, but they too have suffered from gun violence. Some wanted actions that took place when school was not in session, but that was like holding a strike on weekends. It quickly became clear that we would get nowhere if we tried to settle on one plan that was acceptable to everyone. In the end, those of us who wanted action realized that communities should crowdsource their protests and coordinate locally. There was no good reason to impose a one-size-fits-all plan on everyone.
And so we turn to you to do what is most effective for your schoool and your community. But make it loud and bold!
What matters most is to organize, plan, raise your voices, and make sure your legislators hear you.
Don’t settle for thoughts and prayers. Don’t settle for bland promises about mental health services (that are being cut). We need real change. We need to learn from nations that don’t tolerate gun violence. In the five years since the massacre of first graders and staff at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, there have been “at least 239 school shootings nationwide. In those episodes, 438 people were shot, 138 of whom were killed.” (New York Times) The slaughter of children must stop!
I am a Canadian activist, living on Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada. I am going to see that this blog is passed along to many parents, teachers and students within my range of contacts.
Canadians are amazed and puzzled that the deaths of so many children go unheeded. The USA has the best government the NRA can buy. A cynical view but we are looking at our own governments and starting to get some accountability clocks going.
This is not just an American issue. This is a people’s issue.
Cliff Boldt Courtenay, BC, Canada
>
Just blogged about the 4/20 movement to end gun violence this morning. I took the pledge and added the link to the pledge to my blog. This all started on 4/20 with the Columbine school shooting. Let 4/20 mark the end of the cycle of school shootings as well. https://kafkateach.wordpress.com/2018/02/17/parkland-can-420-and-the-testing-industry-end-the-violence/
“This all started on 4/20 with the Columbine school shooting.” The date etched in my mind is November 16, 1995 when a disturbed kid shot up Richland High School in rural Tennessee. Thankfully, I suppose, he did not go in there with an assault rifle with multiple magazines. I know he was not the first. Back in 1930 something, a gunman terrorized Link community down in the country.
Diane,
Another suggestion or solution regarding the
Ability to attain the semi assault rifle
1. A common sense approach that still provides 2nd amendment rights
2 just like buying a drink – move the age from 18 to 21 – just like drinking
As we rally for national action, we must bear in mind that thoughts, prayers, and actions are not mutually exclusive. We can bundle them for a more meaningful and powerful response to these senseless acts of violence in our schools and communities. They are all necessary agents of change.
Wendy,
I am all for thoughts and prayers. But unfortunately our elected leaders want to nothing more than “thoughts and prayers,” and not touch gun control. Not good enough. That is the status quo.
Dear Diane Ravitch, Every day I thank ‘Heaven’ for D. Ravitch … However, there already is a planned demonstration on April 24 …and we don’t want to distribute the public demonstration among several ‘dates’. Please investigate … and get us on same schedule. With gratitude, admiration and affection Green Activist J. Ellingston (Wash. DC)
On Sat, Feb 17, 2018 at 9:01 AM, Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: “Students! Parents! Grandparents! Teachers! > Principals! School board members! Staff! Friends! Citizens! Organize now > for a national action against gun violence on April 20! Take the pledge to > participate in the action! Join the Nationa” >
I signed the pledge and sent this blog to friends who might also sign.
Here is the letter that I just sent to Senator Todd Young (R-IN). I’ve been sending daily emails ever since I found out how much the NRA had given him.
………………………
Is today the day that you will begin to feel some remorse over the teacher and student killings in Florida? Florida has extremely lax laws and that is why a teenager was able to legally purchase a gun that serves no purpose except to kill mass groups of innocent people.
Senator Todd Young, you received $2,896,732 from the NRA to ensure that you don’t vote for any common sense gun control laws. I am making this fact known on every site to which I have access. I want people to know just how corrupt you are. I am ashamed to say that you are my Senator because you don’t represent me. I care about students and teachers because I am a retired teacher. Yes, I am mad. I am mad that someone like you can get away with taking blood money and have no consequences for it. Shame, shame, shame on you and anyone like you.
The NRA is a traitor to our common good.
The idea of a nationwide walk-out is fantastic. However, one of the disadvantages of social media is that there appear to be a multitude of these walk-outs scheduled for different dates: March 2nd, March 14th and April 20th (and perhaps more). Organizers of these walk-outs need to communicate with one another and settle on one date. Could you contact Clare Schexnyder and Women’s March Youth Empower to collaborate? Imagine the power of a nationwide walk out! In addition, mass shootings are not just a problem in schools, why limit the walk-out to students and teachers?
I POSTED THIS AS AN ARTICLE at Oped.
I sob when I listen to the children on the news, and I think of my own 14 year old granddaughters, and how they would be scarred for life if their friends had been slaughtered. I think ho my sons lives would be turned to ash, if their daughters were mowed down.
And the FBI knew. The police Knew. The mother Knew– and the school knew.
This is about ending assault rifles, making sure that anyone who buys a gun has a background check, making it hard to buy ammunition for such killing machines, and ending or policing flea markets where anyone can arm themselves– so they can exercise their right to kill children, and teachers, and citizens, because they are angry or ‘broken.’
Susan: There is no reason for all the killings.
From The New York Times:
Comparing Gun Deaths by Country: The U.S. Is in a Different World
In most advanced countries, gun homicides are as rare as deaths from falling tree limbs or plane crashes.
Gun homicides are a common cause of death in the United States, killing about as many people as car crashes (not counting van, truck, motorcycle or bus accidents). Some cases command our attention more than others, of course. Counting mass shootings that make headlines and the thousands of Americans murdered one or a few at a time, gunshot homicides totaled 8,124 in 2014, according to the F.B.I.
This level of violence makes the United States an extreme outlier when measured against the experience of other advanced countries.
Around the world, those countries have substantially lower rates of deaths from gun homicide…
Yes. If planes were falling out of the skies with the same frequency as these gun massacres, we would have acted immediately and done something a long time ago. Only a very sick and deeply troubled society permits these continual slaughters and massacres. A dystopian society.
A rally might be a good idea. Americans have been rallying since the great awakenings produced our own peculiar brand of religion. Drinkers were asked to take the anti-alcohol pledges throughout the temperance period. His juxtaposed with the use of child labor in the mines must have created quite a bit of cynicism in its day.
Behind the rallies needs to lurk a strong agenda that includes things that are good for our communities. These include gun control, but that alone will not solve the problem. We need to remove punishing sanctions for schools that score poorly on graduation rates and students who score poorly on particular tests. We need to tear apart sanctions that prevent students from driving unless they are in school. Driving has nothing to do with going to school. We need to stop believing that all students of a particular age will be able to master the same intellectual challenges. We need to build communities that will have stable employment and stable families to promote good mental health. Take away one part of a good plan and the rest will come apart.
It’s long past time for something to be done and that’s an understatement. Only a very sick and depraved society would permit its children and its fellow humans to be slaughtered, wounded, maimed, crippled and disfigured by weapons of war. It’s overwhelmingly the GOP (in service to the NRA) that is the culprit in standing in the way of any legislative action. It is purely evil to do nothing after all these horrific massacres. The same people who block universal health care also block stronger regulations against the proliferation of guns. Sad to say, but there are many ordinary Americans who have bought into the NRA propaganda. I was shocked and stunned by one of the girls who was being interviewed on TV. When asked if she were in favor of more gun control, she said no, that more gun laws would not help and that it was a mental health problem not a gun problem. This girl had just seen her friends and teachers ripped apart by bullets. The hopeful sign is that polls show that most Americans do favor stronger gun control. A hopeful sign is that the kids at a neighboring school went out of school during the day to protest for stronger gun laws. More of the surviving kids voiced outrage at the lax gun laws in Florida.
This is most definitely a gun problem and a money problem. We need to vote out the GOP and any NRA-friendly Democrats in 2018.
FYI: this is out there:
YES! National student walkout concurs with our plans for an April 20 action.
I POSTED THIS AT OPED
I’m all for a day of action. Unfortunately, April 20 is associated with cannabis. In some quarters it’s considered “national weed day.” Maybe not a day to associate with the well being of American youth. The connection with the anniversary of the Columbine murders is also fraught with negative associations.
I recommend that local communities designate any other day this spring to affirm their commitment to school safety and the health and well being of children. In all neighborhoods. Both in and out of school.
I’m afraid the call will have to be repeated over and over. So I’m for having a day of action once a month–until Congress and state legislatures take steps to safeguard the students and staff of every single school.
Yeah, especially when the 4/20 symbol is used, which is a code signal for marijuana. April 20th is also the birthdate of Hitler. I wish it was another day, but I will support it nonetheless.
We are taking the day back. Hitler doesn’t own any day in the calendar.
I like the idea of taking the day back, but taking one day back won’t be the answer. According to statistics I heard recently, there are 110,000 shootings every year. Kids die from urban gun violence every single week. If we want to take back April 20, why not take back every 20th of every month until further notice? Maybe do something along the lines of the Moral Mondays protests Rev. Barber led in Raleigh, but on a national scale.
As Diane and others have pointed out, kids are under assault every day in our country in less obvious ways than mass murder. Baltimore city schools are falling apart–they barely have heat. Yet there’s no money for schools in Trump’s paltry and bogus infrastructure plan.
I’ve been following the devastating news from Douglas since the murders. Anyone who thinks American teachers are doing a bad job ought to listen for a few minutes to the teachers and students from that school. It’s heartening that students are leading the way in these protests, but I think that reflects well on their teachers, too.
At the same time, we can’t lose sight of the fact that this is a well funded school in an affluent neighborhood. We can’t lose sight of the less obvious attacks on children in poor areas, all across the country, day in and day out. That’s one reason a big one-day effort to protect children will barely make a dent. Hopefully it’ll be the equivalent of the founding of Mothers Against Driving Drunk–the beginning of a movement that sparks a big change in our culture.
Thank you Roy Turrentine for his last sentence.
I love to repeat his best solution in order to emphasize the core of the well-being for young people. Educators need to find the way to bring Roy Turrentine’s best solution to come true.
“Roy Turrentine – … We need to build communities that will have stable employment and stable families to promote good mental health. Take away one part of a good plan and the rest will come apart.”
Each State needs to focus on providing STABLE EMPLOYMENT to the workforce of all trades/fields. Secondly and lastly, each state needs to nurture public education K-12 so that children have a solid background to build the love and trust in themselves, their teachers, their leaders in their community and most of all, in their humanity. Back2basic
Thanks.
Trump got $21 million for his campaign from the NRA.Trump says, and it is being pushed by the GOP, that the issue is mental health. Of course, his budget is defunding help for those who have mental health problems. There is no recognition that the problem is an excess of guns in our society nor is there any recognition that rifles used only for mass killings should be banned.
How thoughtful to have our flags flown at half mass again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again…..
This just came out from the WH:
Trump says he’ll visit Florida, emphasize mental health after school shooting
– POLITICO
On Thursday, President Donald J. Trump addressed the Nation and announced his plans to visit Florida after a gunman opened fire at a high school in Broward County, resulting in 17 deaths. President Trump’s remarks underscored his commitment to “working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health.” The President also ordered U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff through sunset on Monday.
Hope you can take a part. Get someone else to hold your sign. I think with three schools near my house, I can just walk out to the end of the block.
Sent from my iPhone
Please. Everybody watch this speech from another well educated student survivor:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/348357002