A super-large coalition of organizations representing teachers, principals, superintendents, parents, School Boards, and gun control advocates are participating in a nationwide day of activities on April 20 in support of school safety and against gun violence in schools.
The Network for Public Education is actively involved in planning and coordinating this event, and we urge everyone to join in, wear orange (for gun control), and design your own activities.
Everyone involved expresses their solidarity with the students and educators at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and expects that the April 20 Day of Action will build on the movement they created.
The date April 20 was chosen because it commemorates the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting of students at Columbine High School in Colorado.
The following statement was released by the American Association of School Administrators:
AASA Issues Statement on ‘National Day of Action’
Alexandria, Va. – April 17, 2018 – Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of AASA, The School Superintendents Association, issued the following statement in advance of April 20: A National Day of Action to Prevent Gun Violence in Schools.
“This Friday, April 20, we commemorate not only the most recent school massacre in Parkland, Fla., but also the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting in Colorado. And while our hearts still weigh heavy with the loss of life within our schools, we are using Friday—as the National Day of Action to Prevent Gun Violence in Schools—as an opportunity for students, educators, schools and communities to demonstrate their support for legislation and programs designed to reduce gun violence in schools.
“We are focused on supporting superintendents as they support their students, and you can check out our comprehensive set of resources for information related to responding to trauma, supporting student expression and first amendment rights, facilitating tough conversations, and a list of suggested activities for April 20, among other things.
“Through this day of action, we urge teachers, families, students, administrators and every member of the community to engage in acts of advocacy and civic engagement in and around their schools. Create actions that work best in your school and community. We ask that any activity be respectful and peaceful in honor of those we have lost. We are working together as educators, students, families and communities to send a clear message to policymakers and legislators: Not one more child murdered in school.
“Not one more student murdered in school. Not one more parent living the nightmare of grieving a child who doesn’t return from school. Not one more educator or school staff stepping in to protect students against a gunman. Not. One. More.”
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For additional questions, please contact Noelle Ellerson Ng, AASA associate executive director, policy and advocacy, at nellerson@aasa.org.
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For more information:
Sign your school or district up for the day of action.
Check out our list of recommendations of actions or activities to host as part of your school’s day of action.
Read our position paper on school safety.
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About AASA
AASA, The School Superintendents Association, founded in 1865, is the professional organization for more than 13,000 educational leaders in the United States and throughout the world. AASA’s mission is to support and develop effective school system leaders who are dedicated to the highest quality public education for all children. For more information, visit http://www.aasa.org.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What in the name of humanity is the matter with this country? Things should have changed after Columbine, but here we are 19 years and multiple massacres later and it takes millions of people protesting and taking to the streets just to get the attention of the legislators. This is more than the NRA, the gun manufacturers, it is this ingrained infatuation with guns by millions of very ordinary Americans. In a discussion of gun control at NJ Spotlight, I was accused of wanting to take guns away from honest and legal gun owners and that gun control is a slippery slope to confiscation!!! I want to scream and do a crazed tarantella when I hear such pro gun garbage. Yes, it will take massive demonstrations and electing people who are not beholden to the NRA to effect change in the US. That may mean voting for Democrats who are not 100% perfect on all the other issues.
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RE: “I was accused of wanting to take guns away from honest and legal gun owners and that gun control is a slippery slope to confiscation!!!”
People have accused me of the same thing, Joe.
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The question for me becomes then Yvonne and Joe: Do you believe that no one except government agents should have access to and/or own a gun?
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“This is more than the NRA, the gun manufacturers, it is this ingrained infatuation with guns by millions of very ordinary Americans.”
It is also a hell of a lot more than that “ingrained infatuation”. That infatuation can at least be seen as having a constitutional grounding.
This country is by far the leading purveyor of death and destruction in the world, bar none.
That’s the “more”!
Our whole culture is so steeped in death and destruction from the media, to the sports leagues and socially mandatory pledges and songs used, to the military propagandizing the public, yes that is legal now, to the surveillance state to so, so much love by the average citizen for military death and destruction by the “great Americans”.
Violence, death and destruction are sold, promulgated throughout society as the means to achieving not only this country’s ends but individual ends.
Is it any wonder that individual’s carry out these massacres when all around them is the love of everything death and destruction.
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Another school shooting today in Florida. One student wounded. The shooter is not a student. Details are sketchy, but the early word is that fast thinking, and preparation has saved lives.
The shooter had a shotgun in a guitar case.
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