NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A day after a school shooting in Arlington, Texas, gun control advocates and educators are calling on local districts to enact policies to keep students safe.
From Aug. 1 to Sept. 15, there were 30 school shootings in America, claiming the lives of five people and wounding 23 others.
Former Newtown, Connecticut superintendent of schools Joe Erardi, who has been working with school districts on security since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2021, said he is not surprised, claiming that the pandemic and the greater access that children now have to guns is a formula for disaster.
"You allow this country's most complex minds to stay home and plan for 18 months, it is an absolute formula for a horrible school opening," he said at a virtual event Thursday.
"When will enough be enough," said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers. "When will an incident, a gun incident, so shock the conscience in America that we change things?"
Absent action from Washington, advocates are calling on local school districts to do something.
According to the group Everytown for Gun Safety, 5 1/2 million children in America live in homes with unsecured guns.
Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts said 80% of school shooters get their guns from home.
She said school districts should not be arming teachers or sanctioning active shooter drills, which traumatize children. Instead Watts advocates school boards implement notification policies that require parents lock up their firearms and report that back to school districts.
"What they really should be doing is implementing a secure storage notification policy. Parents need to understand, it's their responsibility to keep their guns securely stored," she said.
Related
