75
Volume:
2018
,
February

Of Note: #NeverAgain

Submitted By:
Jessica Flaxman, Nashoba Brooks School, Concord, MA

Walkouts, Marches, and the Desire to “Do Something:" What you Need to Know about Stoneman Douglas Activism by Cory Collins
Teaching Tolerance, February 20, 2018

Resources for Talking and Teaching About the School Shooting in Florida by Natalie Proulx and Katherine Schulten
The New York Times, February 15, 2018

Urgency and Frustration: The Never Again Movement Gathers Momentum by Emily Witt The New Yorker, February 23, 2018

Congress Has Failed our Students on Gun Violence. What’s Next?  by Deborah S. Delisle
Education Week, February 16, 2018

On February 14, 2018, teenager Nikolas Cruz, armed with an AR-15, went to the high school where he had recently been a student and killed 17 students and teachers. According to Education Week, this was the sixth school shooting in the United States since January 1st of this year. In the painful aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida, difficult truths have again been laid bare, and the nation is divided not only over the need for more effective gun control legislation, but also about the ethics and logic of arming classroom teachers, which President Trump has said is warranted as a deterrent. In response to these distressing events and statements, teachers, citizens, and perhaps most important, students, have raised their voices in resistance. Many are asking, “What can be done?” In response, Cory Collins of Teaching Tolerance has put together a list of action items, some public, some more private, that can be taken to protest school shootings, insufficient gun legislation, and the proposal to arm educators with weapons. Along with the student-started #NeverAgain campaign are a 17-minute walkout on March 14 at 10:00 a.m. and The March for Our Lives on March 24 in Washington,D.C.  #NationalSchoolWalkout, a second nationwide school walkout, is planned for April 20th (on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine massacre). For those unable to participate in public demonstrations, thoughtful classroom conversations will be highly effective. Students and teachers can watch Emma Gonzalez’s speech, discuss the #NeverAgain Twitter feed, create a mural honoring victims, make a “Collage of Concerns,” or use the New York Times column, “Lesson Plans,” where there are a number of excellent talking points and ideas gathered from teachers and students in response to the Parkland shootings. Students themselves are not being silent, as Emily Witt describes in her New Yorker article. As one 15-year old sophomore from West Boca Raton High said, "We have to do this ourselves because, frankly, no one’s going to do this for us. Change is necessary. We need change to be safe.”

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