California Educator

June / July 2018

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I T K E E P S H A P P E N I N G . Yet more gun violence and senseless death and injury plague our schools, the latest being the killing of 10 students and educators by a student at Santa Fe High School in Texas on May 18, and an attempted shooting — thwarted by a heroic teacher — at an Indiana middle school on May 25. e stunning fact is that more people have been killed at schools this year than have been killed while deployed as members of the military.* As a recent story in the New York Tim es notes, students are now assessing their risk of getting shot. " Shootings are so common that students talk in frighteningly practical terms about the location of doors and windows in their classrooms as risk factors. ey calculate escape routes. And they ponder hiding spots in wide-open rooms." T h i s i s w r o n g . S c h o o l s should be the safest place a child can be. It's clear we are not doing enough to keep our students safe and our schools free from gun violence. We say NO MORE. No m o re " t h o u g h t s a n d p ray e r s ." No m o re c a l l s t o a r m t e a c h e r s . No more inaction . We must elect and support leaders who can help pass commonsense gun laws and keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people. Join CTA and others in raising a unified voice, demanding action from our legislators, and voting for the leaders who will keep our students safe. Go to cta.org/nomore to pledge your support, organize an awareness action at your school or in your community, and show that you stand for safe and peace- ful schools that focus on teaching and learning. Our students deserve this. #WeSayNoMore *Washington Post, May 18, 2018: 13 members of the military have been killed while deployed, compared to 27 schoolchildren who died in five shooting incidents this year. Save Our Students Take action now against gun violence in schools What you can do: • Contact your legislators to urge them to pass commonsense gun laws. • To learn more about the issue, to find or organize an action, and to pledge your support, go to cta.org/nomore. • To join the conversation on social media: #WeSayNoMore • Record an #ArmMeWith video. Use the hashtag #ArmMeWith to propose other resources you would rather be armed with instead of guns, such as books, art and music programs, nurses, and school counselors. Go to stories.cta.org/armmewith and submit your video or photo to tell us what you would rather be armed with! • Check out our partners and their work on this issue: The Network for Public Education — networkforpubliceducation.org American Federation of Teachers — aft.org Moms Demand Action — momsdemandaction.org Everytown for Gun Safety — everytown.org Giffords: Courage to Fight Gun Violence — giffords.org 41 J U N E / J U L Y 2 018 A

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