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California: Professors Call on Other Educators to Support Student Walkouts

By dianeravitch
February 28, 2018 //
6

A group of faculty members at the University of Redlands in California has posted an open letter calling on the state board of education and educators to support student walkouts in protest of gun violence in schools. Click on the link to fill out the letter and submit it.

 

Open Letter in Support of School Walkouts to Protest Gun Violence
 

This letter will be submitted by a group of faculty in the CEJ (Center for Educational Justice at the University of Redlands in the School of Education) to the California Department of Education in response to the recent call for several National School Walkouts. All university-based researchers (including faculty, researchers, and administrators) throughout California are invited to sign their names in support of this letter.Listed on the letter will be each signer’s Name, Title, and College/University/Affiliation.

To sign, please submit information in the form fields below the letter by March 9, 2018.
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This letter was co-authored by the following faculty in the School of Education (SOE) in the Center for Educational Justice (CEJ) at the University of Redlands: Brian Charest, Ph.D., Mikela Bjork, Ph.D., and Nicol Howard, Ph.D.

Open Letter in Support of School Walkouts to Protest Gun Violence

Dear California State Board of Education President, Dr. Michael Krist, State Board Colleagues, and California School Principals, Teachers, and Administrators:

Last week, 17 students were shot and killed at a Florida high school by a former member of the school’s JROTC program. The shooter, who expressed white supremacist views online (footnotes listed parenthetically – 1), was trained to shoot lethal weapons by the Army on his high school campus (2). Teachers, students, parents, and allies have had enough. Students are standing up. Teachers and parents are supporting them.

As university and teacher educators (including faculty, researchers, and administrators), we strongly urge you to publicly support all principals, teachers, and students in our California schools and universities, who wish to participate in the upcoming National School Walkouts to protest gun violence (the first of which is scheduled for 17 minutes—one minute for each victim of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting on March 14).

Other walkouts are scheduled on March 24, and April 20, and additional walkouts may occur. We believe educators and students should have your support to participate in these actions. Current gun regulations do not reflect current research or knowledge on gun violence prevention, nor do they reflect public opinion on gun safety. (3)

Our schools, for better or for worse, reflect our priorities as a society and should be spaces where students and teachers discuss what those priorities should be. We believe that any discussion about solving the problem of gun violence must be a conversation about public safety and must also address root causes of this violence, such as the culture of violence in the US that equates masculinity with guns, (4) bullying in schools and on campuses, violence against women, the increase in militarism in schools that serve our most vulnerable youth (e.g, ROTC programs, military-run schools, junior police academies, etc.) (5) (6), state sanctioned violence through policing, and racism that blinds us to the effects of gun violence in poor communities of color. (7) (8)

We believe that the National School Walkouts are the first step toward a public conversation about these root causes, one that can help lead to the enactment of a public safety plan to reduce gun violence in the US. Such a plan would emerge from what we currently know about gun safety and gun violence prevention.(9) Such a plan would also align with the views of a majority of Americans (10) who believe in things like background checks for all gun buyers (93%), a ban on the sale of guns to anyone convicted of a violent crime (88%), and for waiting periods for all gun purchases (72%).

We urge you to take this moment to voice your support for public engagement in the gun safety debate and for students and teachers who seek to pressure lawmakers to enact effective gun safety legislation. Doing so would not only encourage teachers in California to teach about the power of civic engagement, but also provide an opportunity for students to see firsthand the importance of civic action in a democracy. Democracies require citizen participation, and it is through a combination of careful study and debate combined with civic action that citizens shape their world for the better.

We, the undersigned, believe in the need to address the root causes of gun violence and for new laws to promote public safety to end the epidemic of gun violence in the US; we support the right of principals, teachers, and students to participate in the National School Walkout.

#NationalSchoolWalkout #GunReformNow #StudentsStandUp #ArmMeWith

Footnotes:

1. https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/16/us/exclusive-school-shooter-instagram-group/index.html
2. http://www.accuracy.org/release/shooter-cruz-jrotc-and-the-nra/
3. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/06/opinion/how-to-reduce-shootings.html
4. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a18207600/mass-shootings-male-entitlement-toxic-masculinity/
5. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4969649w#main
6. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20442093?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
7. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/opinion/reducing-gun-violence.html
8. https://www.theroot.com/why-it-hurts-when-the-world-loves-everyone-but-us-1823253675
9.http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/71705/file-2141494158-pdf/_DOCUMENTS/CaseStudy_TheBostonGunProjectAndOperationCeasefire_2005.pdf?t=1431722966085
10. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/06/opinion/how-to-reduce-shootings.html

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As of February 24, 2018, the following education scholars have signed in support of this open letter (Names are listed in alphabetical order):

Brian Charest, Assistant Professor, University of Redlands
Kevin Kumashiro, former Dean, University of San Francisco
Mikela Bjork, Assistant Professor, University of Redlands
Nicol Howard, Assistant Professor, University of Redlands

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Categories Education Reform, Resistance, Students

Chris Cotton: High School Students Are Shaking Up the Status Quo

By dianeravitch
February 27, 2018 //
7

Christopher Cotton is a high school English teacher in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

He wrote this article for the school newspaper. 

He writes:

The pattern of responses to school shootings is maddeningly familiar: carnage, thoughts and prayers, too soon to talk, don’t politicize, stalling, relegating, forgetting. People who support some sort of common-sense gun restrictions —  the vast majority of Americans —  have been driven to near-insanity by the impotence of our legislators. We thought Columbine might force a change. We were sure that Sandy Hook, with its young victims, would be the tipping point. But America fell into the same pattern.

Now there is something new under the sun.

What’s new is: YOU.

We adults have utterly failed to budge Washington’s inertia. But you students have a unique moral authority on this issue. You are the ones who pay the price. You are the ones who have to live or die with the results of Congress’ prostration to the gun lobby. As we have seen with news footage and viral videos, when teenagers speak up on this issue they cannot be shouted down. They have a clarity and authority that utterly dissipates the smog that befouls our political discourse.

“You are the ones who have to live or die with the results of Congress’ prostration to the gun lobby.”

I’ve seen legislators hamstrung by that mantra, “It’s too soon to talk about gun restrictions.” I’ve never heard an effective response; the argument has taken on the force of self-evident truth. But now I’ve seen a teenager pop that balloon with a single piece of common sense: “It’s not too soon. It’s too late.”

Teachers care, but the legislators ignore them. Oh, it’s just those unions, looking for smaller classes or other privileges.

Parents care, but they are not organized.

Administrators care, but they have to worry about their school’s public relations.

Students care, and they are not afraid. They are idealistic. They want fairness. They want justice. They have energy. They have not been beaten down by the system. No one can accuse them of being self-interested, unless self-interest means you hope to stay alive.

 

Categories Accountability, Resistance, Students

Mike Klonsky: A New Student Movement, Beginning at Parkland

By dianeravitch
February 26, 2018 //
13

 

Mike Klonsky was a leader of the students’ rebellion against the Vietnam War and racism in the 1960s.

He just returned from a visit to Parkland, and he thinks this new movement may be the change we need now, especially if it expands its vision.

“Florida happens to be the state most averse to gun control legislation with a majority of state legislators receiving big campaign donations from the NRA. In FL, for example, if municipal officials pass a firearms-related law, they must pay a $5,000 fine and lose their jobs. They can also be forced to pay up to $100,000 in damages to any “person or an organization whose membership is adversely affected by any ordinance” —such as, say, the NRA.

“To show how deep the divide is, the old, white male Republicans who rule the state, after refusing to meet with Parkland students to consider a ban on assault rifles, passed a resolution declaring that pornography endangers teenage health.

“Refusing to be demoralized or turned around, not even by death threats from the right, the students are turning their grief and anger into militancy, organizing an NRA boycott, two national student walkouts against gun violence and lobbying for a ban on assault weapons. The shootings have sparked a new national movement with students taking the lead.

“Students have traditionally been the igniters of larger and broader progressive social movements. That was true of the Civil Rights Movement (SNCC) anti-war and anti-imperialist youth revolt (SDS) of the ’60s and the student uprisings here and in Europe 50 years ago.

“The power of the youth movement rests in its embodiment of a vision that transcends the immediate demands and aims at reshaping the world in which the next generation will live, work, and lead.”

 

Categories Guns, Injustice, Resistance, Students

New Paltz, New York: School Board Member Defends Rights of Students to Join Protests Against Gun Violence

By dianeravitch
February 26, 2018 //
13

 

The New York State School Boards Association sent out a warning to local boards across the state about the risks of letting students join protest actions in support of the gun control movement. It is ironic to see the sudden outbreak of pearl-clutching when charter advocates have repeatedly closed their schools and bused their students, parents, and staff to Albany to lobby for more money for their charter organizations, with nary a peep from the NYSSBA.

Incidentally, many colleges and universities have declared that they will ignore any sanctions imposed on students because of their participation in walkouts related to gun violence.

A school board member in New Paltz responded:

“In a recent Legal Alert email from the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) to its members, advice was offered to school boards considering whether to support students participating in a planned national walkout in protest of gun violence in schools, or to exempt participating students from disciplinary action resulting from a violation of school policy. NYSSBA offered very cautious, sensible advice from a purely legal perspective. In short: policy should always be upheld in order to preserve order and prevent the danger of setting a precedent which might, in the future, be used by students to evade repercussions for other policy violations; and that school boards should not support such activities, because school districts have “no express authority to engage in political activities,” but rather should always assume a position of neutrality. In addressing the issue of students’ First Amendment rights, NYSSBA cited the U.S. Supreme Court case of Tinker v. Des Moines, which states that schools can curb students’ free speech rights when they cause a significant disruption to the learning environment.

“As a school board member, I could hardly disagree more with everything I read in this email. Public education has become a highly politicized environment. Governor Cuomo, the New York State Education Department, Commissioner Elia, the Board of Regents, corporate reformers and charter school advocates have turned our public education system into a political football that gets trotted out and kicked around the field during every election cycle. To say that school boards should remain neutral, even apolitical, is ridiculous. We are elected officials, and though our elections are nominally nonpartisan, we are individuals with viewpoints, we represent our voters’ viewpoints, and have obligations to them and to students. The very notion of free public education for all was once considered a radical idea, and still faces attack today from various opponents.

“As school officials, one of our first and most important duties is to ensure that our students, teachers, administrators and staff have a safe and welcoming place to learn, teach, and work, free from fear. We are facing an ongoing crisis in our schools, a repeating cycle of violence, followed by fear, then inaction, and finally complacency. Over the past 20 years, we have seen tragedy after tragedy unfold, from Columbine, to Newtown, and now to Parkland, each with its horrific, bloody, senseless deaths, each ultimately marked by the failure of leaders to take action. As the alleged adults in the federal government prepare to once again sadly shake their collective heads and tell us they wish there was something that could be done, young people across America are preparing to come together in solidarity with one another, and to demand that leaders take action to protect them.

“Our kids and our teachers are being shot down in the hallways and classrooms of the one place they should feel safe from harm. This is not a time for cautious sensibility on the part of school officials. It’s a time for outrage, a time for anger, a time for grief, and a time for change. It’s a time for school board members to stand up on behalf of our students and staff, not to hide behind the board table. Some of our students will choose to walk out and demand that change. Some will not. Either is a brave choice, and should be supported, not punished.

“Brian Cournoyer
“Member of the New Paltz Central School District Board of Education”

 

Categories Accountability, New York, Resistance, Students

Emma Gonzalez: What Should We Say to Adults Who Want Us to Be Silent?

By dianeravitch
February 26, 2018 //
17

 

Thanks to principal Jamaal Bowman for sending me this story about Parkland student leader Emma Gonzalez:

Emma says:

“Adults are saying that children are emotional. I should hope so—some of our closest friends were taken before their time because of a senseless act of violence that should never have occurred. If we weren’t emotional, they would criticize us for that, as well. Adults are saying that children are disrespectful. But how can we respect people who don’t respect us? We have always been told that if we see something wrong, we need to speak up; but now that we are, all we’re getting is disrespect from the people who made the rules in the first place. Adults like us when we have strong test scores, but they hate us when we have strong opinions.”

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a18715714/protesting-nra-gun-control-true-story/

Emma’s Twitter account is @ Emma4Change

Categories Guns, Guns in Schools, Resistance, Rhee, Michelle, Students

Ohio: Students to Teacher in Wheelchair: “If There is a Shooter, We Will Carry You”

By dianeravitch
February 24, 2018 //
6

 

 

How do you do emergency planning when the teacher is in a wheelchair? The teacher wondered. The students had a plan.

“Like teachers all over the country, Marissa Schimmoeller returned to her high school classroom the day after the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, last week with a heavy heart. She told TODAY Parents she knew the day would be a tough one for her ninth and tenth grade English students at Delphos Jefferson High School in Delphos, Ohio.

“Schimmoeller went to school that day prepared to tell her students exactly what they should do in the case of an active shooter on their own campus. It turned out her students had a plan of their own — and when Schimmoeller revealed one key detail of it in an emotional Facebook post, the story quickly went viral….

”This is 24-year-old Schimmoeller’s first year of teaching, and she has more considerations that others when it comes to active shooter drills in her classroom: Schimmoeller was born with cerebral palsy and she uses a wheelchair.

“Her students are familiar with the day-to-day implications of her condition, she told TODAY Parents. “I begin on the first day by talking about my disability,” she said. “I tell them that they may be asked to assist me in the classroom — by passing out papers or writing on the board for me — and I allow them to ask me any questions they want to.

“However, last Friday was the first time that I had to share my limitations in terms of protecting them.”

“When her student asked what they should do in case of an attack, Schimmoeller said she felt “a bolt of fear and sadness run through me. I definitely don’t have all the answers, but I want them to feel safe in my classroom….”

“On Facebook, Schimmoeller wrote that she told the students, “I want you to know that I care deeply about each and every one of you and that I will do everything I can to protect you. But — being in a wheelchair, I will not be able to protect you the way an able-bodied teacher will. And if there is a chance for you to escape, I want you to go. Do not worry about me. Your safety is my number one priority.”

“Her students had other plans. “Slowly, quietly, as the words I had said sunk in, another student raised their hand,” Schimmoeller wrote.

“She said, ‘Mrs. Schimmoeller, we already talked about it. If anything happens, we are going to carry you…

”When I was in front of those amazing kids as they told me they would carry me out of our building, if, God forbid, we were faced with a situation like the one in Florida, it occurred to me that every child, every one of my students, is so full of light and goodness.”

“I wanted to share that with those around me, because I spent so much of my day angry about the violence, and I knew that people needed reminding of the good in this world just as much as I did,” she said.”

Next time anyone complains about the rising generation, tell them they don’t know these kids. They are our hope for a better future.

Categories Guns in Schools, Students, Teaching

Our Students and Teachers: The Best in the World!

By dianeravitch
February 23, 2018 //
37

I call a moratorium on bashing our students and our teachers. If I could manage it, I would make that moratorium a permanent ban.

If you have been watching the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on television, you have seen young people who are smart, eloquent, well-informed, and reasonable. They are so much smarter than so many of our elected officials. The elected officials who dare to debate them are quickly shown to be empty suits.

These students are the best in the world. They survived a horrific attack on their school, stepped over the bodies of their friends and teachers, and emerged to tell the world that this American carnage (as Trump put it in his inaugural address) must stop. Now. No more school shootings. They are old enough to vote; the others will be voters by 2020. They are angry and they are focused, and they know what the problem is: guns. Too many guns. Easy access to guns. NRA money buying politicians.

They will not be bought off by empty promises to increase background checks. To extend the waiting period for an assault weapon. To raise the eligibile age to 21 for buying a weapon of mass murder. They know that mass murderers can pass background checks, can wait three days, and may be older than 21, like the killers in Orlando and Las Vegas. They want a ban on selling military weapons to civilians. They want a ban on sales of military weapons at gun shows and online. They will not be hoaxed. They call BS on phonies.

As we saw in the Sandy Hook massacre, the teachers and principal of these students defended them with their own bodies. They took the bullets to shield their students. They didn’t sign up to be targets for a homicidal maniac, but when the time of reckoning came, they gave their lives to save their students.

Meanwhile, “the good guys with guns” heard the shooting but stayed out of the building. The deputy assigned to protect the students has resigned, and two other officers are being investigated.

Would you have the courage that these teachers and principal had? Would you lay down your life to save that of others?

Would you have the courage and eloquence of the students who left the funerals and memorials for their friends and teachers to fight for a better world?

Revolutions are made by the young, not by tired middle-aged, comfortable folk.

These young people are amazing and admirable.

Their teachers are heroes.

The kids praised their teachers. They know who is on their side.

I praise them all.

I stand with the students, the teachers, and the other educators who fight for children every day.

 

 

Categories Education Reform, Principals, Students, Teachers

Detroit: Families, Students, and Teachers Speak Out Against “Choice”

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2018 //
8

 

At a town hall meeting in Detroit, students, families, and teachers spoke out against the damage caused to them by the false promise of “school choice.” Allie Gross covered the meeting for the Detroit Free Press.

One parent described the wonderful school attended by his child with cerebral palsy; it was to save money.

“In 2008, Alfred Wright enrolled his son, Timothy, in kindergarten at Oakman Elementary/Orthopedic, a small school on the Detroit’s northwest side that specialized in teaching students with special needs.

“Timothy had recently been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and the school — which came with spacious hallways, discreet changing rooms, small class sizes, and an on-site nurse — seemed like the perfect match.

“And, according to Wright, it was. For five years, he watched his son thrive in the close-knit and accepting community. Oakman not only was prepared to accommodate Timothy’s needs but it helped Wright, as a parent, better understand his child.

“But then the seemingly unexpected happened. In spring 2013, Roy Roberts, Detroit Public Schools’ second emergency manager, announced that Oakman would be one of six schools to close the following school year. It would add to the list of nearly 100 district schools that had shuttered since 2009, when the state took over DPS due to finance.

LWright and the rest of the parents were given two traditional public school options: one that was 1.2 miles away and the other that was 2.4 miles. Both choices fell within the bottom 5 percent of schools in the state for academic performance. More notably, neither were handicap accessible.

“All of the things we feared happened,” Wright said, explaining how issues at Henderson Academy, where Timothy ultimately ended up, ranged from bullying and isolation to a lack of knowledge and preparedness when it came to educating students with special needs.

”This reality — instability, uncertainty and inefficient resources — is why on Tuesday night, Wright and Timothy made their way to Wayne State University’s Law School to participate in an Education Town Hall hosted by the #WeChoose Campaign. A movement made up of 25 organizations from across that country — including the NAACP, Advancement Project, Dignity in Schools and Journey for Justice Alliance — the group is working to support racial justice and end educational inequality via, among many things, town hall gatherings that bring attention to what the group sees as “the illusion of school choice.”

“Parents, students, and educators do not choose the sabotage of their neighborhood schools, school closings, zero tolerance policies that target black and brown students, punitive standardized testing school deserts,” the group’s mission statement explains. “We choose equity, not the scam called school choice.”

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Detroit, Education Industry, Failure, Parents, Privatization, Students, Teachers

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

Will Trump Dare to Meet Emma Gonzales, Student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School?

By dianeravitch
February 18, 2018 //
27

 

Watch Emma Gonzalez’s electrifying speech about the massacre at her high school. She knew the shooter. She calls out the cowardly politicians who take NRA money and send their “thoughts and prayers.”

Trump says he will have a “listening session” with students and teachers on Wednesday.

Will he dare to invite Emma Gonzalez?

She is well-informed and fearless. She speaks for her classmates and her generation.

She will not back down.

Let this be the last mass murder, she says.

Tremble, NRA.

Watch out, Governor Scott.

Time’s up, Senator Rubio.

Emma is coming for you!

 

 

Categories Education Reform, Florida, Guns in Schools, Students
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