18 SCHOOL SHOOTINGS SINCE JAN. 1, 2018. Everytown for Gun Safety says this is the 18th school shooting in 2018 — which includes shootings where guns were fired accidentally and no one was injured. One shooting occurred here in Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) at Oxon Hill High School. Three were in Texas, including one where a teen at Italy High School shot and hurt a girl over a breakup. There have been more than 300 school shootings since 2013. That’s an average of one per week. bit.ly/2EFast8

David C. Berliner a Regents’ Professor Emeritus in the College of Education at Arizona State University, issued the following call for a national teachers’ strike on May 1. Teachers are now first responders, trained to protect their students if a shooter gets in the building. Some have given their lives for their students. Parents should join teachers. Enough is enough.

Berliner writes:

”It is way past time. Between now and May 1st teachers have to agree on the gun legislation they want. They can consult with Giffords and Kelly, and others who have suffered, such as the parents who have already lost children to this horrible characteristic of our culture. If by May 1st they have not received assurance that their legislation for sanity in gun ownership will be acted on soon, they need to walk out of our schools. It would be May Day, when workers should exert their strength.

“Our country’s legislators, and the voters who send them to make our laws, can then choose: Teachers and (most) parents for sane gun laws, or, the NRA that provides our legislators money to avoid making the laws that could reduce the carnage we see too frequently.

“Almost all of America’s 3 million teachers— nurturers and guardians of our youth– want sensible gun laws. They deserve that. But they have to be ready to exert the power they have by walking out of their schools if they do not get what they want. They have to exert the reputational power that 3 million of our most admired voters have. Neither the NRA nor their legislative puppets will be able stand up to that. My advice is to start meeting now, write model legislation, submit it to state and federal legislators, and if rebuffed, close down our schools until you get what you (and the rest of us) deserve.”

Save our children.

Officers stand guard at North Park Elementary School following a shooting on April 10, 2017 in San Bernardino, California. Two people died, including the suspected shooter, in the apparent murder-suicide attack. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Gun violence is affecting communities around our country. So far this year, 20 people have been killed while innocently attending or working in American schools.

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