A national school walkout has been proposed for 14 March, to protest the lack of action on gun control after yet another shooting.
I’d support it and tell my students they could stay home that day, except that they’ve scheduled it for our spring break so we’ll all be staying home anyway.
Aye.
The one I’ve seen being bruited about on Facebook the past couple of days is scheduled for 4/20 (the anniversary of the Columbine shooting).
By now the calls to “not politicise a tragedy” and to “give the families time to grieve” are basically a tool to silence the survivors and families who loudly started demanding answers and action the minute the shooting was over.
Brutal as it sounds, my reaction was, “Oh, another mass shooting in the USA.” Shrug.
Car bombing in Damascus, suicide bombings in Kabul, shootings in the USA, all are just part of the normal news.
Until the US manages to get a grip on its gun problem and the underlying social problems that promote these atrocities I guess I will continue to shrug and make the morning tea.
I’ve seen 3 dates thrown around, but I also thought there was growing consensus around Apr 20. My wife is an elementary school teacher, and her district will also be spring break on March 14 (as I suspect would be the case for a significant % of schools nationwide).
Then again – who says there only has to be one?
I’ve been impressed with the interviews I’ve seen of the students of the school and others. These kids are pissed and
speakingSHOUTING out. I don’t know much about this district’s voting, but I see a couple thousand new voters in the next election or two soundly rejecting the Republican sycophancy to the NRA and likely similar around the nation. These kids are demanding to be heard and don’t appear to be planning to shut up any time soon. Personally, I’m a torch and pitchfork kind of guy, but though old-fashioned, I’m still behind them all the way. The Republicans have sealed their fate. Ostracizing women, the youth, and minorities is going to kick them square in their asses for the next decade or two, stacked courts or no. I can’t wait to hear their wailing and gnashing of teeth when us white males become the minority. This is why the Left needs to lean more and more to the left, to make it that much harder for the R’s to attempt to gain some kind of traction or redemption with voters by offering wimpy, meaningless concessions to the center right. Yes, Mitt Romney might be better than Orrin Hatch, but he’s still horrible.Off-topic, but I have to say that I haven’t heard of too many schools named after such an inspiring person as Marjory Stoneman Douglas. (I’m sure it helped the decision making that the property literally borders the Everglades, but still…) Too many schools are named for politicians and plutocrats rather than people that actually stood for or did something that might actually inspire the students.
Walkouts and protests and demonstrations won’t do anything.
That’s the spirit!
Just like it didn’t help Women’s Suffrage or Civil Rights.
I’d be fine with being proven wrong about this. Happy even.
@6, Ragutis
I don’t get it, how does leaning further left make it harder for the Republicans to gain traction? Could you explain how you think voters will be affected by one strategy vs the other, and why you think that?
Great idea but it could backfire. All DeVos’ needs is another excuse to shut down public schools and fund the Christian ones. Remember that the aim of conservatives is to prevent education as that just makes people vote liberal.
In Washington DC, 17 kids have staged a lie down protest calling for gun control.