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Vox: Fact-Checking Trump’s Claim that 10-20% of America’s Teachers Are “Very Gun Adept”

By dianeravitch
February 26, 2018 //
39

 

Vox decided to fact-check Trump’s claim that 10-20% of America’s teachers are “very gun adept.”

I responded that he just “made it up.”

Vox did some digging and found that a program called Troops to Teachers, established by the first Bush administration in 1993 attracted 20,000 veterans into the classroom. That’s about one-half of one percent of the nation’s 3.5 Million teachers. TFA placed 320 veterans in schools. That’s not even a statistical blip.

Rachel Wolfe of VOX looked for other possible sources of teachers who are “very adept” with firearms.

As I said, Trump was just making it up.

I wonder if he has ever met an actual school teacher other than perfunctory school visits.

Where did he get that number?

 

Categories Guns, Guns in Schools, Safety

Coalition Supporting “A Day of Action Against Gun Violence” Grows!

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2018 //
7

 

On April 20, education organizations are joining forces to protest gun violence and demand action from state and federal legislatures. We call it a Day of Action Against Gun Violence.

The Network for Public Education, the NEA, and the AFT are coordinating mass actions in every school district across the nation. Our goal is to ignite political action to stop gun violence.

We invite communities to choose their own strategies to raise consciousness and the will to keep fighting for change. We have suggested actions such as strikes, walk outs, sit-ins, teach-ins, a march to your legislators’ offices, candlelight vigils, arms of parents and teachers clasped around the school. Do what is best for your communities. Work with parents, educators, and students. We assume that thousands of parents, students, and teachers can devise more creative and ingenious ways to demonstrate and protest against gun violence than the organizational leaders can. We invite you to crowdsource your actions and share them with us.

Every student deserves the right to learn in a safe school, without fear of gun violence.

The following organizations have just joined our Day of Action:

Defending the Early Years

The California Teachers Association

Public Schools First, North Carolina

There will be many more.

We expect to have orange armbands on our website soon. Orange is the color signifying support for gun control.

Categories Guns, Guns in Schools, Network for Public Education, Networkfor Public Education Action Fund, Safety

The New Yorker: Calling B.S. in Parkland, Florida

By dianeravitch
February 19, 2018 //
6

 

Emily Witt writes here about her visit to funerals and memorial services and grieving in Parkland, Florida.

Amidst the grief, she found one sterling beam of hope: Emma Gonzalez called “BS” on the ineffectual politicians who could find no reason to do anything at all.

It was a bad week for a lot of reasons, but at least we had evidence of one incorruptible value: the American teen-ager’s disdain for hypocrisy.

Categories Guns, Guns in Schools, Resistance, Safety, Students
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