I said I was going to post only once a day. I meant it. I am starting a new book.
But the massacre at Majory Stoneman Douglas has enraged me. I am obsessed with defending the children and stopping future slaughters. I am in awe of the energy and passion of the students who survived the shooting rampage. I want to support them in any way I can.
Arming teachers is a terrible idea. This administration will do anything to pander to the NRA, which donated $30 million to the Trump campaign. What a boon for the Pro-Death Lobby to sell millions more guns to arm teachers with handguns, which will be ineffectual against an AR 15 or other assault weapons.
If the Trump administration wants to secure schools in the short run, let him call out the National Guard in every state and let them patrol the entrance to the school to protect against shooters. Let the federal government pick up the tab. Let students learn and teachers teach in peace, with no guns whatever in the school.
The only long-term and realistic solution is to ban weapons of mass killings, like the AR 15. Let the hunters keep single-shot rifles for their hobby. Buy back the AR 15s and similar semi-automatic weapons now in circulation. Make it a crime to own or possess one for anyone but the military. Military weapons should not be bought or sold at gun shows or online or anywhere else.
More guns, more killings. Fewer guns, fewer killings.
Anything less than banning assault weapons is a fraud.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Patrolling schools, because it will not make them look like prisons. Just what Back to the Future, Part 2 envisioned for 2015. How quaint.
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The violence seems unending
The pain of it endures
WILL finds a way
Begin TODAY
Let’s build persisting cures.
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Agreed, thank you, Diane.
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There was an intelligent discussion about this problem on KQED FM’s Forum program at https://ww2.kqed.org/forum/2018/02/19/how-can-we-keep-schools-safe/.
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PS – KQED is the San Francisco NPR station.
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I should also note that our CA senator Feinstein has long been a promoter of an assault weapons ban.
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Thank you. From another enraged parent. I hope the teens keep doing what the media will not do and call out the utter nonsense these pro-assault weapons politicians and NRA shills keep spewing. The CNN town hall was so enlightening because the host was his usual idiotic “both sides have a point” self and the teens were not accepting it and pointing out “The Emperor has no clothes” which the co-opted “liberal” media obsessed with being “fair and balanced” will never do.
I loved that the politicians and NRA shill were shocked at actually being challenged when they spewed their lies since they are so used to coming on these shows and having the media give them their say without any real challenges.
We need teens calling out these lies on every news show.
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Did you notice how those teens just went on and spoke eloquently even when the adults in charge dismissed them? Now that is focus, poise, maturity, and intelligence.
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We can be proud of our students. Does anyone remember how Michelle Rhee paid for a national ad during the 2012 Olympics ridiculing our athletes and our students? She portrayed them as an overweight, seemingly effete man trying to perform a women’s sport and falling on his face.
Have you noticed the deafening silence from “reformers”?
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Diane, people ought to promote the idea that the first purchaser of a gun shall be responsible for its use for its entire existence. In other words, they can’t sell, give, lend, pawn or carelessly store it, because it might fall into hands less worthy than theirs.
This: 1) gives gun owners a sense that they are extraordinary people, worthy of owning one. 2) gives them a lot of reason to think about how much they want to own a gun or even lots of guns. 3) Boosts new arms sales as owners destroy rather than sell off guns they don’t want anymore. 4) Eliminates most of the 81% of gun homicides committed with somebody else’s gun. 5) Allows the NRA to proclaim, “You can have my gun when you unglue it from my cold, dead hands.” and 6) Keeps the NRA from claiming the Second Amendment protects the right of a gun owner to sell his firearm. GunSense Vermont has been approached with this idea already.
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I think you’re on to an interesting idea. In a similar vein, I would take a slightly different approach or perhaps augment it with policy that has strong precedent and established infrastructure. Require liability insurance just as we do for the cars we drive. I suspect many supporters of gun rights are also supporters of free market economic policies. They should back words with deeds. So let the market put a price on the carnage and assign responsibility appropriately. You want to own that scary gun? Can you afford the recurring premiums? Oh, and establish a fund with a premium surcharge that is used to pay the cost of destroying weapons that people voluntarily surrender. Might be effective, no?
This, in addition to criminal liability for negligent gun custodianship could go a long way. You don’t get to say, oops, I misplaced my gun and someone else has it now. If it is stolen, you forfeit your bond, a portion of which goes to your insurer who requires periodic inspection. If you made it easy to steal by not storing it in the prescribed fashion, it is a criminal offense.
This doesn’t get us bogged down in idiotic debates over what constitutes an assault weapon or how many bullets is too many bullets in a magazine. If I want to drive a Lamborghini, State Farm knows the score.
Yes, this is cold calculation that puts a price on the priceless. But we know when investigating political motivation, one should follow the money. This is a way to lead with money. We will never rid ourselves of guns or violence, but the current situation is hideously extreme. If we are going to find a politically viable solution, we stand the best chance of achieving it by accommodating opposition in ways that still protect us.
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thanks for the response, Bill. About the insurance proposal, the NRA would argue, When insurance-free guns are banned, only rich criminals will have them…. And then they’ll go into the 2nd Amendment defense. My proposal insists that every gun they buy, they’d better want to hang onto forever. If they’re into bearing arms, they should be willing to use Super-Glue…
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You all thought I was being glib when I suggested the NRA would find legislative means to fund teachers with guns: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-armed-teachers-pay-bonus_us_5a8f0048e4b005bb0fef56dd
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Good gawd. Makes me puke.
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Wow. Call out the National Guard. That is a zinger.
It is a great way to make several points and with a vivid, if horrifying mental picture. Diane, the historian who should be writing her book, knows what she is doing with that imagery of troops surrounding schools. It made an impression on me.
Shades of 1957, my first year of teaching.
Back then, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called up the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the integration of Little Rock Schools. The segregationists were out of hand, threatening anyone near the school who was black, including the press. Members of the National Guard were not defending the students. They were there to protect the segregationists.
In desperation the mayor of Little Rock asked President Eisenhower to send in federal troops to enforce integration and protect the nine students.
On September 24, the President ordered the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army—without its black soldiers, who rejoined the division a month later—to Little Rock and federalized the entire 10,000-member Arkansas National Guard, taking it out of the Governor’s control.
Will Trump, with support from Governors and members of Congress, call out the troops to keep students from protesting the NRA?
The unreasonable defenders of gun rights are likely among those who have already started a campaign to discredit the students, parents, grandmothers and teachers who are gearing up for more protests.
The Little Rock 9 – Arkansas 1957
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Better than arming teachers
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Thank you for the video. Made me shiver. Those BRAVE students … impressive.
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We are grateful you decided to post more than once, but can’t help but wonder when this country’s dialogue will turn to the root causes of the shootings as a means to prevent a person about to blow from doing just that, and taking as many folks along with them when they go. It is not a coincidence that schools are being targeted. The conformist, test-prep, all or nothing atmosphere that has been foisted on schools makes them a vivid symbol of what tortures the loner who doesn’t fit in anywhere. Hence the tangible symbol becomes the easy target. And the decline of mental health services across the country only adds to the problem. Patrolling schools to make them safer – not necessarily against the idea. Arming teachers? Puleeze! Never mind the school-to-prison pipeline. Takes too long. Just turn schools into prisons with teachers as the underpaid guards. DeVos’ brother, Erik Prince, must be salivating at the possibilities and potential profit for his company…
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Thank you, Diane. Truly.
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I couldn’t agree more. It’s that simple. I think he’ll push the arm the teachers nonsense, and when nothing happens he’ll blame Hillary, Obama, Bill Clinton, FDR, you, me and everyone but himself.
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That’s ALL he knows. He’s an idiot. And he owes Putin. He hates America and likes making America GRATE.
Dear Other Countries, Ignore our ignoramus.
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He can keep blaming the FBI and ridiculing it’s leadership (whom he appointed). Mike Klonsky pointed out a couple of days ago that if the FBI had interviewed Nikolas Cruz, they could not have detained him, because he did not commit a crime before the massacre. That’s another Trump-NRA red herring.
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Kev Russell’s song has been reverberating in me after watching and listening to the young people speak about the shooting in Parkland. May I suggest it as an anthem of sorts?
It’s true I am wicked, it’s true I am mean
I must a lost my way chasing a dream
It’s true I done things that i’m ashamed of
But I still need tenderness and the warmth of love
I’ve come clean and I’m redeemed
Since I have see through the eyes of a child
It’s true I am guilty, reputation is stained
I stood up and admitted to my grief and my shame
But I believe that a soul can right its wrongs
And in the sweet ascension of a redemption song
I’ve come clean and I’m redeemed
Since I have see through the eyes of a child
Sin it seems to win 10 times out of 9
Forgiveness is not so deliberate
And it takes an awful long time
Maybe the punishment don’t fit the crime
But judgment will come with the passing of time
But I believe that a soul can right its wrongs
And in the sweet ascension of a redemption song
I’ve come clean and I’m redeemed
Since I have see through the eyes of a child
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Bless you, Diane. I’m newly retired and nothing has enraged me as as much as these school shootings, the Trumpian response (arm the teachers) and the general response, or lack there of, of congress, the NRA (La Pierre), etc.. What is enraging is how ideas like smaller class sizes that enable teachers to not only know their students better, but allow them to teach them better, is never once mentioned. Arm teachers??? Could any one of us live with the inadvertent murder of a student in the chaos of a shooting because we missed and hit the wrong pupil? Turn schools into virtual prisons? The fear that my young students felt during these lock down drills, still brings tears. And no, I didn’t incite that fear, I whispered stories to them, cuddled them, reassured them repeatedly. And twice, we were left locked in our little retreat corners because administrators/custodians/police forgot we were there. Thank you for using your respected position as Educational Leader to keep weighing in. We wait lovingly for your next book—however long it takes.
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These are crazy times. Someday people will look back and say thank God for the real leadership shown by people like you, Diane.
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Dear Diane Ravitch, No, you can’t work on your book now – Our Public Schools are an ‘ongoing’ tale of disaster … surrounded by legal horrors – that block us from solutions. No, you can’t take ‘time out’ now… Sadly, it may not make any difference – we are sliding into ‘fascism’ as though we were on a bobsled going down hill…. (is this the way ‘Democracy’ crumbles into ‘history’ and the Present becomes the Past?
…. Keep writing your blog – Surprising but, I believe you are ‘gaining ground’ … (I’m 87 – so, I can see in both directions) Jenefer Ellingston
On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 2:01 PM, Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: ” I said I was going to post only once a day. I > meant it. I am starting a new book. But the massacre at Majory Stoneman > Douglas has enraged me. I am obsessed with defending the children and > stopping future slaughters. I am in awe of the energy ” >
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I will do both!
These are crazy times. The Reform moment is imploding. So is our society.
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Spot on, as usual.
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I vote for the book over the blog if one must come before the other. Two nights ago I addressed my school board, which has three of five new members (the other two are up in two years), all former teachers. I started my talk by urging them to make checking in on dianeravitch.net a part of their daily routines and brought along my copies of The Death and Life… (revised edition) and Reign of Error to strongly suggest that they read them if they had not already…and soon! And since we live in Ohio, to pay special attention to the work of Stephen Dyer and Bill Phillis. You do you, Diane!
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“You do you, Diane.” Yes.
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Why are people so vehemently opposed to banning semi-automatic weapons? Why do they believe arming teachers is a great idea? SMH…. None of the teachers at my school, including myself, have the desire or comfort level to carry a gun. It is not OK to put that responsibility on us.
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Meanwhile in NH, we need to get folks to rally behind an amendment that would give local school boards the power to prohibit guns in designated safe school zones. As it stands now, only the legislature can enforce the federal laws and they have not only refused to do so, but introduced a bill that would fine school boards who tried to enforce policies that forbid guns on their campuses.
In the meantime, Governor Chris Sununu’s “solution” to the problem of guns in school is an $18,000,000 initiative to upgrade security in schools.He boasts:
“That’s about 300 schools (that) will get money for security doors, surveillance systems, emergency plans, training for teachers,” he said.
New Hampshire, like virtually every other state in the union, has woefully underfunded infrastructure for at least a decade… and while school districts will greatly appreciate ANY funding for infrastructure, it is hard to believe that district would choose to spend $18,000,000 on security doors, surveillance systems, emergency plans, training for teachers rather than spending it on upgrading their technology, fixing leaky roofs, or addressing deferred maintenance projects. I can think of many laws that would not cost $18,000,000 that would make schools more safe, beginning with the law Senator Hennessy proposes and ending with the kind of gun control legislation Connecticut passed after the Sandy Hook massacre.
I hope readers in NH will monitor the amendment Senator Hennessy introduced and suggest solutions to the problem beyond “… security doors, surveillance systems, emergency plans, and training for teachers” It is clear that this problem cannot be solved at the federal level so we all need to keep an eye on what is happening— or NOT happening— at the state and local level.
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As a elementary teacher for the past 24 years, the day it becomes required that a staff member in my school carry a concealed weapon is the day I quit teaching.
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Diane, I suppose you can tell I share your outrage as I have shared and will continue to share your pieces on my blog. My blog is supposed to be political satire. Until primary elections are over in Texas, it will serve a different purpose. Thanks again for your voice.
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JoAnn,
I am a native Texan as you may know. I follow Texas politics closely. You have a great need to find someone like LBJ or Ann Richards, who cares about people more than money. If Texans throw out that blowhard Dan Patrick, there will be some very loud hooting and hollering in Brooklyn.
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