Posted on 03/13/2018 5:46:56 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Parents across the country are being urged to let their children participate in the National School Walkout on March 14. Yet, few parents (and kids!) understand the walkout’s true mission. At my children’s elementary school in Northern Virginia, school officials are telling parents the walkout is meant to memorialize the 17 victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Yet, according to the National School Walkout website, the real mission of the walkout is to demand Congress pass more restrictive gun laws. The website specifically states: “Students and allies are organizing the national school walkout to demand Congress pass legislation … Congress must take meaningful action … and pass federal gun reform legislation.”
So, the children walking out of the classroom on March 14th won’t be spending the time in quiet prayer or reflection. Instead, school kids (even those in elementary school) are going to be used as props by professional anti-gun activists to push for specific legislation.
Some schools are even aiding in the effort by coordinating with the walkout organizers, providing “safe spaces” for kids who participate in the walkout, promoting the event on school Facebook and Twitter accounts, and allowing school buses to transport kids to and from gun control rallies.
Considering that many public schools are helping to rally more kids to the cause and are even supplying school resources and personnel time to the effort, tax payers should ask: Is this an acceptable use of school funds? More importantly, why is a publicly funded school supporting one side of a very contentious and complex constitutional matter?
Some might even wonder: What other political causes can I expect my public school to promote? Should conservatives in politically red areas of the country expect schools to help transport kids to next year’s March for Life? Or how about for the inauguration on the Mall when Trump is reelected in 2020?
Educators should also be concerned that the politicization of this issue avoids the nuance of what went wrong in Parkland that allowed the terrible shooting to occur, and what policies might actually help prevent the next one.
For instance, we now know that between 2008 and 2017, the Broward County sheriff’s office received 45 calls from concerned citizens related to the Parkland shooter and his brother. Social workers visited the his house multiple times. Yet, none of these reports (which included threats of violence and warnings that these troubled boys had access to weapons) were entered into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). If these many incidents had been logged into NICS, the shooter wouldn’t have passed a background check, and he wouldn’t have been able to purchase a firearm.
This isn’t just a problem in Broward County. According to a 2016 audit by the Justice Department, all 50 states are guilty of not properly submitting records to the database. Even mental health information largely goes unreported. Considering this, parents might want to ask if their own police departments and social service networks are consistently reporting incidents to the NICS.
They also might want to consider that at Parkland, three Broward County Sherriff’s deputies stood down outside the school, which allowed Cruz to continue his killing spree. Pushing for better police training and more effective communication with local schools is another area where parents should focus.
And there are more important areas to explore, such as the actions of the armed school resource officer employed by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Instead of trying to keep students safe (as he was trained to do), he huddled in a stairwell with his gun holstered. In light of this, parents might want to ask questions about the level of training their school’s resource officers are receiving.
Americans ought to vigorously debate these issues, but we should also recognize that new laws won’t make a difference if they go unenforced. Moreover, there are already 300-plus million guns in the United States. That means regardless of how we restrict gun ownership, we need to be prepared to respond to acts of violence in the future.
Sadly, many parents have decided to pass on these hard questions and instead join a movement that is using children as props in a complex policy issue. We can all agree that children deserve safety and security at school. There are ways to help move toward that goal, but taking advantage of our kids for political ends isn’t one of them.
Nothing closed here yet in CNY but certainly expecting it.
Crickets! ( as usual) It's “go along” and “get along” and pickup retirement benefits in the end.
Sue the school districts. These students are supposed to be in class, not raising hell for seditionists.
Flat out if I had a school aged child they would be in school
They should all be suspended and forced to goto summer school after 12 th grade to graduate late
Thanks for that post, I needed that.Horrible people.
My daughter’s school district is on spring break. Gotta love the timing.
But, of course!
This isn’t some Bake Sale organized by kids to raise money for a Class Trip...
This is flat-out Leftist Anarchy!
Wow. I never even thought of that! I wouldn’t put it past them. :(
So much of, ‘Useful Idiots’ lives are orchestrated. :(
“Some schools are permitting students to “opt out” of the walk out but they must still walk out of their classes and “wait” in the gym or auditorium until the activist protest is over.”
Link please.
It has been discussed in numerous posts on threads on this topic. Here is one “for instance”
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/03/09/this-weeks-nationwide-student-walkout-6-things.html
6.) How can schools accommodate students who don’t participate and/or don’t agree with the politics behind the walkouts?
Some districts where events are planned are also making it clear that students can opt out. In Allegany County, Md., students and staff members who don’t want to take part can spend time in school libraries engaged in alternative activities.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/11/us/national-school-walkout-march-14/index.html
Meanwhile, school officials with Chesterfield County Schools in Virginia have said their students can either hold a student-led memorial service for the victims of the Parkland shooting or hold a student-led assembly about school safety, CNN affiliate WTVR reported.
Not surprising. The previous “marches”, including the “Moms Demand Action” group, utterly failed. Time to use children as stage props.
Once again, we’re forced to pay for
something we don’t want. What would
happen if I refused to pay my fair
share of school taxes for the year?
I don’t have any kids in school any
longer. This walkout sounds like
misappropriation of funds to me.
“...and allowing school buses to transport kids to and from gun control rallies.”
Discussion I just saw on TV says it is only a 17 minute walkout, couldn’t really be bussed anywhere in that time.
Sorry my FRiends, the United States of America that we have all known and loved our entire lives is in its death throes.
Just wait until the Left regains power. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
I don’t want to hear that most People in this Country are Conservative, they’re not.
I don’t want to hear that the reason the DemoncRats are winning Elections in Red Districts is Voter Fraud, it isn’t.
We are heading towards a defining moment in History. The Election of POTUS Trump may end up being nothing more than delaying the inevitable.
I feel for those of you with Grandchildren. They will never know what it’s like to live in a truly Free Country like we had the fortune of experiencing.
I will continue to hope that sanity will take hold, but with each passing day it seems less likely.
We should listen to the poignant voices of our precious youth, who are often wiser than we are and something needs to be done for them-the chiiiiiildren!
There ends my sarcastic rant. This really is being condoned by faculty and one school in my fair town IS actually bussing students to a downtown location for a march.
I will not reveal the name of the high school because I am letting my daughter stay home tomorrow for her safety and because she doesn't want to be used as a pawn by those morons.
Side note: a couple of days ago there was a mini riot a block or two away from school. 15-20 students raising a ruckus and one kid pulled out a gun.
Anything like this walkout just causes all sorts of chaos and near rioting and my daughter doesn't want to be around it.
I think you are 100% correct.
Sadly.......
Yep. Had to explain it to my kids. It’s not about safer schools ... it’s about gun control. But mine are on Spring Break this week so anyway.
Been thinking the same thing.
They meant the cost of busing kids to future events as this event seems to set a new bar.
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