Category Archives: School and Education

“Why is there suddenly so much traction? Has the country just finally had enough with these mass shootings?”

The Atlantic: The Parkland Students Aren’t Going Away. “American teens are shaping a new kind of debate about gun violence—but why now?” By Alia Wong. Feb 24, 2018.

“It quickly became clear that these survivors were poised to spearhead a political movement whose message is so loud, and so raw, it’s continued to dominate mainstream news coverage and radio shows and even late-night comedy a week after the shooting—an unusual phenomenon in today’s real-time news environment. They’ve written haunting op-eds and delivered viral speeches; they’ve instigated rallies and prompted nationwide walkouts by students and teachers.”

See the website March For Our Lives.

“Another person with a gun won’t necessarily help you.”

dangerousmeta!: “My favorite thing to do for people who believe ‘more guns’ is the answer, is to drive them to the graveyard in Cimarron, New Mexico. The original “Wild West.” Often held up as some sort of John Wayne version of perfect American society. Well, here’s that society, as reflected in the cemetery:

Everyone had guns.

And they shot everyone.

Men. Women. Children. Dear lord, they even SHOT THE TOWN PREACHER.”

“In the event, I will do everything in my power to keep your child safe.”

all these ghosts (tumblr): I’m your kid’s teacher, and I would take a bullet for your child. But I wish you wouldn’t ask me to.

“So when adults tell me, “I have the right to own a gun“ , all I can hear is: “My right to own a gun outweighs your students’ right to be alive.“ All I can hear is: “My right to own a gun is more important than kindergarteners feeling safe at school.“ All I can hear is: “Mine. Mine. Mine.“
[…]
We live in a country where children are acceptable casualties. Every time someone tells me about the second amendment I want to give them a history lesson. I also want to ask them: in what universe is your right to walk into a Wal-Mart to buy a gun more important than the lives of hundreds of children shot dead in their schools?

Parents send their kids to school every day with this shadow. Teachers live with the shadow. We work alongside it. We plan for it. In the event.

In the event, parents know that their children’s teachers will do everything in their power to keep them safe. We plan for it.

And when those plans don’t work, teachers die protecting their students.

We love your children. That’s why we’re here. Some of us love the subject we teach, too, and that’s important, but all of us love your kids.”

Link via MetaFilter.

The total number of school-children killed by bullets to date (as of February 1, 2018) is 218 school-children.

Add 17 to the total, which now rises to 235 (source).

Another school shooting in the USA. No need to link, it’s all over the internet. For this foreigner who has spent her whole life in a country were very few people have guns and where regulations are strict (and became even stricter after the Winnenden school shooting in 2009 in which 15 students were killed) it is still incomprehensible why the majority of US politicians (and citizens? voters?) still support the current status quo and the second amendment.

Garret proposes to take over the NRA. I wonder if that would work.