Statement from MEA and NEA Presidents on Oxford school shooting
The following statement can be attributed to MEA President Paula Herbart and NEA President Becky Pringle on the school shooting today in Oxford:
“News of the shooting today at Oxford High School was horrifying for us both as educators and as parents. School should be a safe place for students and employees alike – but today that safety was shattered by gunshots.
“Our hearts go out to the victims and their families, as well as all the Oxford students and educators who’ll carry today with them for the rest of their lives.
“We also want to thank the dedicated first responders whose swift action was essential, especially the school resource officer who apprehended the shooter and kept more innocent lives from being lost.
“MEA and NEA are committed to working with our local members and the school district to ensure that students and employees get the emotional and physical support they need to begin recovering from this tragedy.
“Further, we remain committed to ending violence in our schools. One event like this is too many – and this is not the first time the unthinkable has happened. Addressing the mental health needs of our students and the physical safety of everyone in our schools is not a partisan issue and must be something we work together to achieve. Each of today’s victims – and every student, parent, educator and first responder – deserves that commitment from us all.”
We need to put pressure on our government to work on gun laws. Is this something our MEA lobbyists are working on? I wish we had more communication from MEA about what our lobbyists are working toward.
Hi, Karyn. For the latest updates on legislation that affects our public school educators, please subscribe to our members-only legislative email newsletter, Capitol Comments, by clicking the link at the bottom of this page. You can also find information and resources, including legislative input and MEA Legislative Priorities at mea.org/legislation.
MEA member here, as well as a 23 year veteran of the Army National Guard with multiple deployments including war time Iraq. Focusing our money and thought energy on more gun laws would be counter-productive in protecting our students and ourselves as the gun laws that are already in place don’t stop this problem. We owe it to our non-biological kiddos to explore all options.
Is there any way teachers nationally could do a rolling strike for gun control? We had another mass shooting here in a Michigan school this week. I am a Apwu member and was thinking maybe If there was a teacher /student/ parent strike together we could get some kind of gun controls and more mental health money in schools to hire more social workers and therapists? I don’t know if this is even possible but my heart aches for our schools staff and all our kids. This shouldn’t be happening. Any thoughts?