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Illinois Education Association
Statement on Gun Violence in Schools
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 [May 26, 2022]
The following is
attributable to Illinois Education Association (IEA) President Kathi
Griffin, IEA Vice President Al Llorens and IEA Secretary/Treasurer
Tom Tully regarding the shooting at Robb Elementary School in
Uvalde, Tex.:
“We face another tragedy – an almost unbearable and oft-repeated
incident of kids getting on a bus, going to school and hanging up
their backpacks on a hook in a classroom to never walk out.
“The anguish of the families of these innocent children who were
murdered, the two brave and nurturing teachers who tried to protect
them, and of the Uvalde, Tex. community as a whole is almost too
hard to watch.
“It should raise red flags for us as a country that in the cases of
Robb Elementary School, of the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y.,
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. and Sandy
Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., among others, the shooters were
so young.
“The web of mental health services that is meant to catch these
kids, cradle them and help heal them has giant tears in it. The
signs they give get ignored instead of treated. We have to do
better, especially in the shadow of a pandemic that caused
more-than-normal stress and isolation.
“It’s time to stop watching these tragedies and start doing
something. We ask for our leaders to come together. This is not a
partisan issue. This is not a gun rights issue. This is an issue of
children being able to attend school and be safe, of families of
color being able to go to the grocery store in the middle of the day
and not be targeted by violence, and of helping all of America not
live in fear.
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“We join U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut’s plea for Congress
to come together. ‘This isn’t inevitable. These kids weren’t
unlucky. This only happens in this country. Nowhere else,’ he said
on the Senate floor Tuesday. ‘It is a choice.’
“We join that plea. We
ask that those who can make change do. Please pass common sense laws
to help stop weapons from getting into the hands of those too sick
to handle them. Please restore the mental health services that once
existed in our schools and strengthen those outside them. Please
make the right choice.”
The following resources are available for parents and educators:
The 135,000 member
Illinois Education Association (IEA-NEA) is the state’s largest
union. IEA represents PreK-12 teachers outside the city of Chicago
and education support staff, higher education faculty, retired
education employees and students preparing to become teachers,
statewide
[Illinois Education Association] |
