The U.S.-based Guardian invited student journalists at Marjory Stoneman Douglas to edit this issue.
This article is a student manifesto about school security and student safety.
Please read their reasonable and thoughtful proposals.
The kids have more sense than our so-called leaders. Anyone who complains about “kids today” is going to have to get past me first. These kids are a great generation. I am in awe of their integrity, intelligence, knowledge, and poise. They are a damn sight better than the clowns currently running our government.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Then our “FAKE” leaders that worship at the altar of avarice and sold their souls to the devil
It is good. They’re sharp, too. I like how they anticipated that the funding would be drawn from existing school funding unless they specified ADDITIONAL :
“Though this idea has been proposed in the past, these funds should not be appropriated from the already scarce funding for public education. Governments should find resources to secure the millions of children that attend public schools without taking away from the quality of education that is offered at these institutions.”
Compare:
“U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos today announced new details on the Federal Commission on School Safety the President appointed her to chair. The Commission has been charged with quickly providing meaningful and actionable recommendations to keep students safe at school. Accordingly, the Commission will be comprised of department heads whose agencies have jurisdiction over key school safety issues: Secretary DeVos, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.”
https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-devos-forms-school-safety-commission
15 year olds did a much better job than any of these adults, and they did it while recovering from a huge and traumatic event, while mourning friends they lost in the equivalent of a battlefield experience, and while full-time students.
They are truly amazing and inspirational.
Applauding the MSD high school students!
These students are articulate, understand the issues, and their Safety Manifesto makes a lot of sense. I am so heartened by the intelligence, morality, saneness, and courage of MSD high school students. They do indeed honor that school’s namesake.
👏
And the youth shall lead…
Impressive is they include “culture” and “community.” (Only word missing is “streets.”
Students in urban schools feel safer in school than outside of it. Look at the stats.)
These young adults understand. The debate is not guns or no guns. It’s the gun culture and gun violence that must be transformed.
Crosby, Stills, and Nash saw this coming – in “Teach Your Children” – the conclude – –
“Teach your parents well
Their children’s hell will slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you’ll know by”
The youth want to teach us – will those with a vote learn?
There is a shortage of hotel rooms in WashDC area. I volunteered to host a student marcher. If anyone here lives in WashDC area, you can sign up to host at http://www.marchforourlives.com
Whether you can march or not, get your orange armbands, ribbons, hats, and shirts out to wear in solidarity tomorrow. Turn some heads in the supermarket.
I was at a national conference today,
wore an orange scarf and explained why.
Also ended the talk with high praise for the students and their teachers.
Good for you!
Fantastic young people! As a retired teacher, it gives me hope.
From the article “These weapons were designed for dealing death: not to animals or targets, but to other human beings.”
I heard the argument that AR 15s are great for hunting since it ensures the killing of the animal instead of just injuring it.
Anyone who needs an AR15 to hunt is not much of a hunter.
I feel the way about fishermen who use radar to find fish.
But the hunters with assault weapons are worse.
The fisherman that throw dynamite in the water to kill fish by the hundreds and thousands are worse … much worse. It’s called blast fishing.
“The Horrors of Fishing With Dynamite”
The function of any firearm, is to hurl projectiles at high speed. Whether the projectile is hurled at a paper target, a clay pigeon, an animal, or human flesh, is a matter of indifference to the firearm.
Legislators and politicians must continue to focus on the perpetrators of violence, and how to limit access to firearms,
What you are saying, Charles, is the NRA line: Don’t control guns, control human behavior. That’s why we have the highest rate of gun violence of any nation in the world. We tried that and it failed. Obviously you don’t care about human life.
We all know that the best way to make sure kids don’t eat candy at home is not to have any candy at home.
Yeah, some parents think, their freedom of keeping tons of candy at home shouldn’t be controlled, and instead of getting rid of their inhome candy supply, they come up with insane ways of punishing their kids, even asking the neighbors to spank their kids if they catch them during candy consumption violation. But these measures don’t work for them: their kids still end up with cavities and billions and billions of fat cells in their butts, thighs and cheeks.
Saying “The function of a candy is to be swallowed, digested and get turned into calories, fat and cavities. Whether the candy ends up in the system of a child, adult or a shaggy dog is a matter of indifference to the candy” is completely unrelated to the issue of how to control kids’ candy intake, and, for that matter, being indifferent certainly doesn’t deflect any blame from the candy’s harmful effects.
I am saying NO such thing. I am not parroting the NRA line. Please see my comment:
Q Legislators and politicians must continue to focus on the perpetrators of violence, and how to limit access to firearms, END Q
I strongly support limiting access to deadly weapons/firearms. Workable legislation must be passed to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of felons, mentally ill persons, domestic abusers, etc.
Focusing only on firearms is just inadequate to the crisis. The solution to the violence, must be “holistic”. There must be measures taken to keep the firearms out of people who should not be armed. There must be measures taken to protect the people who could possibly be harmed by people using deadly weapons.
Better coordination between mental health professionals, and law enforcement must be had. The alleged perpetrator in the recent Florida shooting had at least 39 police calls to his residence. This should have sent up a forest of “red flags”.
Next time put your whole argument in one post. It didn’t take much space to clarify.
No boys among the authors of the article…
Yes, several boys are listed among the staff at the end of the story.
I went by the pictures.
The only thing missing from the list is a “red flag” provision. Unless police are empowered to confiscate guns in cases where a judge has issued a restraining order or determined that an individual’s state of mind is such that their possession of a weapon poses a threat to themselves or to others gun violence will continue unabated.