This just in from Long Island parent leader Jeannette Deutermann, who spent the day dealing with issues related to the National Student Walkout to protest gun violence:
“Several LI districts suspended students for walking out, and several more blocked the exits so students could not leave. Two even scheduled “lockout” drills at 10 am and did not lift the lockout until 10:17. For the past two days I’ve been working with Nassau and Suffolk ACLU to get these kids and their parents help with lifting the suspensions. A few districts changed today and lifted consequences. Some still have not.
“Here’s the worst case- a girl from Copaigue was blocked from leaving with other classmates. The admin then warned students to clear the hall or face suspension. She and 3 classmates did not and were suspended. She is in the school play which is performing TONIGHT, and is not allowed to perform. There is a show tomorrow and Saturday. I’m still trying to get her punishment lifted.”
What a disgrace!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
My older daughter’s high school said any students walking out would get a detention. I’m happy to say that over 500 of them took them up on that (sadly, my daughter was not one of them). The school’s reasoning was “safety” – they can’t keep the kids safe out of the school building. Which is kind of ironic since the protests were about school shootings, meaning that even with security guards, metal detectors and punitive policies, kids are not safe in school. What’s even more ironic is that, despite community demands and pleas, there is no school bus service to the high school (only one massive school, basically centrally located, in a town of 80,000+ covering about six square miles. So you have 3,000+ kids walking, biking, taking city buses, etc. up to four miles at pre-sunrise hours (zero hour starts at 7:00 a.m., school officially starts at 8:00) with no school protection whatsoever, but these same kids are in danger if they walk out of the building for 17 minutes in broad daylight?
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Would you feel the same way if students were advocating/protesting for securing schools with armed security? Some students, staff and parents do feel they should be protected the same way our politicians, celebrities, banks/money, sports venues, and every court facility, etc. are protected… with “armed” security? Just wondering!?! What about those students, staff and parents?
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Here is a novel thought . If a few 100,000 students show up in Washington with AR- 15s locked and loaded . The law will change one way or the other . After all the peoples right to bear arms shall not be infringed. Not as far out an Idea as you think. If it is strange to you I can give you the history lesson . It is a colorful story . Or should I say a story about the absorption of all color and cats.
Perhaps the question you should be asking is why we have to protect our municipal buildings with armed guards. While in the UK the majority of Police do not even carry weapons.
So much tyranny in the UK. Where you are allowed to keep a muzzle loaded weapon with proper permits.
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Put as many armed guards as you want in the school . Then someone with a gun will shoot out the front windows on a school bus killing the driver and then the students . I got it , lets provide every drive with an AR . He can drive with his right hand and shoot with his left . Or do we give each bus a police escort . Perhaps we can arm all the students .
It might be cheaper to treat the mentally ill . Those that feel the need to own these weapons . Even those that think there is a solution other than banning them and turning them in for compensation .
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Openminded, are you willing to pay for all of that security? $$$$$ You make it sound so easy! Armed security for all schools just like banks, courthouses & sports stadiums! In our large suburban county, we have 95 schools!! Each school would need to become an armed prison camp to truly be secure! And not just during school hours but after hours for sports, clubs, music, theatre performances, etc. And not just indoors but outdoors on the baseball fields, field hockey, football & soccer fields for PE class & sporting events. How about when there are multiple sports competitions at once with visiting teams, parents, student spectators, etc., coming & going on school grounds? Are we going to pay for security cameras, too, to cover some of these large campuses of 5-6 acres?
Last night our high school of 2,800 concluded hosting a 3-day county-wide orchestra assessment. We hosted 60 orchestras from middle and high schools starting at 10:00 am & concluding at 10:00 pm each night. Are you & your like-minded friends who want all of this security going to pay for armed security after-hours, too? How many guards are needed? I can tell you that one isn’t enough for venues such as ours hosting large crowds.
Also the last I checked banks & courthouses have one public entrance. Schools? There may be one front entrance but there are doors and windows all over the place! Do you think access to an entire building can be controlled for 13-16 hours a day without armed guards posted at each door?
Also, our county has 200+ trailers that are used as classrooms throughout our 95 schools. Our high school alone has 12. Are taxpayers going to pay for an armed guard for each of the 200 trailers to protect these children & teachers?
The talking point that has emerged of having security equivalent to banks, court houses & Major League Baseball stadiums isn’t credible, and neither is the idea of turning schools into prisons. The latter is morally bankrupt.
And if you’re so worried about the students, staff & parents who you say want prison-like schools, no one is stopping you from starting your own movement. Go ahead, see how many join you in your own walk outs! Better yet, why don’t you & your friends walk to the next county supervisors meeting to demand that your taxes be raised to pay for the level of security you demand!
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I hope schools don’t fall for the grant program. The grants won’t come near to the cost of security and the schools will end up reallocating funds from instruction to security.
Schools need to get much better at sniffing out political con jobs. These phony “grants” are killing their budgets.
Congress has once again ripped off public schools by punting a problem off to them without sufficient funding.
Don;’t take the money. It’s a lousy deal for public schools. They should call it the “protect the incumbents” grant program.
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Hah!! So dramatic…I’m sure one entrance in and out and security might help. We can get hit by a bus crossing street. There is no magic bubble. How can any one have a different opinion and try to voice it when it gets a response such a response?! I’m sure a burglar who knows one house is NOT a gun free zone will select the gunfree house next door to rob…or worse! I’ll choose the protected home for my family! I was fortunate to have a parent that was a police officer and as all our neighbors got robbed, they stayed clear of our door! In felt much safer and certainly not like I lived in an armed prison! But safer! Remove all your guns from our elites, etc. for their protection and then I’ll respect their voice to not have guns to protect my family likewise! I’d love a perfect world where no evil existed but that is not feasible or realistic. God bless and I hope you never have to be faced with a bad guy with a gun without a good guy to protect you nearby. And yes…I would be glad to pay for extra security during the school day. One of two armed security at minimal entrances will help. Not an army now…Sorry I don’t feel the way you do, but I respect your opinion and just feel differently. Maybe we all need to just respect all our differences and opinions not just our own? There’s no one answer to anything! Be safe!
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Openminded
I would love to know where you lived that all your neighbors got robbed . Sounds like a place I would like to avoid . Living on long Island I seem to recall a robbery or two in the thirty 32 years I have been here . Of course nobody was home at the time of those neighbors being broken into.
But lets see , I worked in East NY and Crown Heights in the early 80s perhaps you heard of it . Diane can tell you . Worked in Harlem in the early 90s worked in the South Bronx in the late 90s and early 2000s every one of these places they have made movies about. Each of these places I worked in daily for the better part of 32 years . In that period of time the closest thing I ever came to an incident was some kids shooting a gun into the air off of the roof of the Marcy House in Brooklyn. (not at us ) . So where ever you live I want to stay away from .
The chances for most people to be involved in a crime incident who do not live in a neighborhood riddled with crime are slim . The chances for you responding to that incident with a weapon successfully are even slimmer . But maybe NYC had gotten a bad rap and we were always a City of snowflakes peace and love.
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I heard from friends of mine who had children in districts around Syracuse that it happened there, too. Kids literally stopped from leaving the school by teachers & cops. I haven’t heard anything around Buffalo, where I live. I don’t have cable TV, so I am dependent on what people tell me.
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I guess common sense just can’t be taught in a classroom…? Drugs are illegal here and elsewhere as well. Did that eliminate drugs from criminals orvsociety? Criminals don’t follow the law and will continue to obtain weapons while law abiding citizens will continue to be sitting ducks in gun free zones. Strict back ground checks, recognizing and actually treatung mental health concerns and letting shooters know they will be “stopped” before they make it into a school with equal force will lessen the odds of our children and staff from becoming “victims.” Sadly…this is the world we live in and what we have to do to protect students and staff…or people anywhere else. It could be disney world…but wait…they use metal detectors and bag checks and I’m sure armed security! Nothing’s guaranteed anywhere…but at least we can do the best we can to keep people safe from “evil!” I do have children as well….and would feel much safer if I knew my kids where being protected the same way our politicians and celebrities are! Yes…it’s sad we have come to this but gun free zones have not worked!!! It’s just an invite to na shooter! He has at least 4 minutes to kill before the good guys with the guns get there to stop him! God Bless the victims and heroes, students and staff, that sacrificed their lives saving students!
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“…letting shooters know they will be “stopped” before they make it into a school with equal force….”
Right, that was very effective at Parkland. It’s a good thing they had armed security who stopped that shooter before he did any damage.
Oh, wait….
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He was a coward and certainly not representative of our brave law enforcement community. As the video has presented, he would have been able to save lives if he did his job as the oath he took rather that hide while students were murdered. Any parent would of ran in that building in flip flops and a T-shirt to save those children. As he should of as an officer. He did not do his job that fateful day!
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Openminded….please report back to us after you attend the next meeting of your local governing authority to demand that your taxes be raised. Also, it might be beneficial for you to prepare a cost analysis identifying the security you demand, why you think it will be effective & its cost to taxpayers. If you’re unwilling to have your taxes raised (& something tells me your that type), then please identify the areas of the school budget you’re willing to cut to pay for school security you demand. Please share with us!
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That type? Nice!
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I went to school in a considered decent area and had a police officer…one armed police officer assigned to our high school…very effective. Yes…I would be willing to increase taxes for that.
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How many shooters with AR-15s did your armed police officer take out?
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Huh?
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Will you please stop with the gun free zones crapola!!!! Columbine had an armed guard who actually shot at one of the teens. The teens did not care, they were crazed and suicidal. There were armed civilians, good guys with guns, at the Tucson massacre, one of them almost shot the wrong person. The AZ lunatic shooter didn’t care that he was shooting in a gun zone. As it was, he was tackled and taken down when he was reloading. There were armed security at the V-Tech massacre. One crazed shooter attacked a state police barracks in Pennsylvania in 2014. The PA state police do possess fire arms as far as I know, not a gun free zone! There was a massacre on a military base, not a gun free zone.
Do the best we can? That includes banning semi-automatic assault weapons, high capacity magazines; having universal background checks, a longer waiting period, a surtax on bullets and guns……..for starters. I am not against more security measures at schools, that’s already happening as we “speak.”
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Exactly
No gun control measures work without banning the semi automatics
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Q No gun control measures work without banning the semi automatics END Q
I do not understand. There are many firearms control measures in place now, that do not involve a ban on semi-automatic weapons.
-Ban on “cop-killer” bullets
-restrictions on magazine capacity
-Ban on “devastator” bullets (bullets with exploding heads, like were used to shoot Pres. Reagan in 1981)
-Background checks on firearms sales
-Ban on certain classes of weapons (like sawed-off shotguns)
-Age limits on firearms purchases
Are you stating that none of these measures (and there are many more), are ineffective, without a ban on semi-automatic firearms?
Pistols are semi-automatic, a round can be fired each time the operator pulls the trigger. Should pistols be banned as well?
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Charles, if it were left to me, I would interpret the 2nd Amendment literally, reflecting the Founders’ concern to have a “well-regulated militia.” That does not mean that every citizen should be a gun owner.
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Absolutely wrong about Columbine . I believe it was not one armed guard but two.
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Joel: I can’t win. In another comments section venue (Jersey Jazzman), I was soundly scolded for saying that there were 2 armed guards at Columbine and that I was spreading false information. I did read an article at Huffingtonpost that implied that there were 2 armed guards but it was not definitive. One was on campus and the other off campus. So to avoid endless quibbling, I just mention the one guard who did manage to get off a few shots at the teen. I have no idea if the guards worked in alternating shifts or simultaneously?
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I don’t know how many armed guards there were. The one who was a definite did not enter the building. Apparently he took cover. I also read that the first Police on the scene waited outside for a SWAT team. That allowed the killer to walk away. He could have killed many more given the refusal of armed police to enter the building. Would it have been different if a teacher had a hand gun?
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Yes, semi-automatic hand guns should be banned as well.
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2009 Fort Hood Shooting
13 people killed + dozens wounded on a military base with trained armed personnel in abundance.
It’s clear that in this new world, facts are immaterial.
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That’s interesting. I live in a very conservative area and the student protesters weren’t punished. There were a lot of them. I was surprised. They did a silent protest where they assembled outside for 17 minutes.
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Ditto at my school. About 60 kids were allowed to go by themselves to a practice field. I went too as it was my free time. They milled about, some serious and some looking for a way out of class. The serious ones finally organized the group in a circle and one girl led the group in the Lord’s Prayer. When 17 minutes was up they went back to class. Some of the teachers were exasperated due to the previous day being taken up by some state test. I could see their point since interrupted time is always teacher time, but the kids behaved in an exemplary fashion.
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I’m happy to report that our school division which is the 2nd largest in Virginia (with 95 schools) was supportive of the student walkouts. The walk-outs were limited to 30 minutes and the students needed to stay in school grounds, but outside of these two parameters, there would be no punishments. One of our daughters chose to participate and one did not. There appeared to be a few hundred participating in a school of 2,800.
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Some Florida districts also issued protesters detention slips when students decided to leave the building. Other districts offered no punishment for protest. It was a mixed response.
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This is the mentality of too many of the administrators we have to deal with, certainly not all, but too many.
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@openminded: you are more likely to suffer a gun injury if you live in a house with guns. Unfortunately a relative of mine was a police officer and used his weapon to kill himself after an argument with his wife. He did it in front of his child, 10 years old at the time. The suicide was impulsive and unexpected, but after the fact a few family members said he hadn’t seen himself lately. Regardless, even a 20 plus year veteran cop can be susceptible to gun violence.
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The deformers are afraid of our HS students. Hooray. Let them be afraid. These kids are smart and brave … watch them.
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*been himself
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I find this absurd that we teach students their rights in the first amendment during civics, then take them away and tell them they have no rights when it comes to being a participant an actual event.that they feel strongly about.
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I thought this was rather unsettling: https://twitter.com/jo_herman16/status/974069222157451265
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““Several LI districts suspended students for walking out, and several more blocked the exits so students could not leave. Two even scheduled “lockout” drills at 10 am and did not lift the lockout until 10:17.”
Quite typical adminimal behavior!
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Aren’t those adminimals being so proactive?
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