WASHINGTON, Feb 26, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Students and teachers returned Sunday
to a Florida school for the first time since 17 people were killed there,
consoling each other even as they called for swift action to address gun
violence.
“Imagine (being) in a plane crash and then having to get on the same plane
every day and fly somewhere else — it’s never going to be the same,” David
Hogg, a survivor of the February 14 shooting at a Parkland, Florida high
school, told ABC television’s “This Week.”
The school held a voluntary “orientation” Sunday, with teachers and staff
due back starting Monday and classes resuming on Wednesday — a prospect
described as “daunting” and “scary,” but which is also a step for survivors
to move forward after the attack.
One teacher who had already been back told NPR radio that the shock of
returning to a classroom left exactly as it had been during the attack —
notebooks still on desks, the calendar still set to February 14 — made her
so physically ill she had to leave.
But Cameron Kasky, a student who survived the attack, tweeted a picture of
people on campus, saying: “It is GOOD TO BE HOME.”
“I have all my friends here with me and it just makes me feel like I’m not
alone in this situation,” student Michelle Dittmeier, who attended the
orientation, told ABC.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School also received support from alumni,
with previous graduating classes making banners to decorate the school, the
WSVN news reported.
Amid ardent demands by students like Hogg for action, President Donald
Trump has said he is open to raising the minimum age for gun purchases and to
banning so-called bump stocks, which can effectively convert semi-automatic
weapons into automatic firearms.
Speaking at the Governors Ball ahead of meetings with the top officials
from all 50 states on Monday, Trump said that school safety is a top
priority: “I think we’ll make that first on our list.”
– ‘Red flag’ law –
A new CNN poll, conducted a week after the Florida shooting, shows surging
public support for stricter gun laws — surpassing levels seen even after
other horrific shootings of recent years — and for a ban on powerful semi-
automatic weapons like the AR-15 used in Parkland.
Overall, 70 percent of those surveyed said they supported stricter gun
laws, up from 52 percent in October, and 57 percent favored a ban on semi-
automatic arms, an increase from 49 percent.
Florida Governor Rick Scott has laid out a plan to station a police officer
at every public school in the state, raise the legal age for gun purchases
from 18 to 21 and pass a “red flag” law for authorities to more easily remove
guns from the mentally ill or people with violent histories.
The age change and “red flag” law are staunchly opposed by the influential
National Rifle Association, of which Scott is a member.
Scott, who holds the NRA’s highest rating of A+, noted on “Fox News Sunday”
that “there will be some that disagree. But… I want my state to be safe.”
Trump had Scott stand up to applause on Sunday, telling him: “You’re doing
a great job.”
Florida was also the scene of a June 2016 shooting at an Orlando nightclub
that left 49 people dead.
Dana Loesch, an NRA spokeswoman, told ABC that her organization opposes
most of the proposed gun measures.
Instead, she placed blame on politicians, for their inaction, and on law
enforcement — specifically the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, which she
said had had ample warning of Cruz’s violent tendencies.
She accused the sheriff’s office of “abdication of duty” for not arresting
Cruz sooner.
– ‘A terrible idea’ –
But in an often-contentious interview on CNN, Sheriff Scott Israel strongly
defended his department’s work.
Of the 23 calls to his department about Cruz’s erratic or threatening
behavior, nearly all were minor and had been handled appropriately, and a few
others were being investigated, he said.
Asked about a deputy who stood outside the school building for long minutes
even as the slaughter unfolded, Israel called the man’s inaction
“disgusting,” but said he appeared to be alone in failing to respond
adequately. The deputy has since resigned.
“We will investigate every action of our deputies, of their supervisors…
and if they did things wrong, I will take care of business,” he said.
US media have reported that three other Broward County Sheriff’s deputies
also stayed outside the school and did not enter during the crisis.
Trump has also proposed arming some teachers, a step many teachers
passionately oppose.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told C-
Span in an interview that “it’s a terrible idea, period, full stop.”
Children, parents and teachers, she said, “want schools to be safe
sanctuaries for teaching and learning, not armed fortresses.”
Delaney Tarr, another young survivor of the Florida shooting, said she was
girding herself as best she could to return to school.
“It’s daunting… (and) scary because I don’t know if I’m going to be safe
there,” she told Fox.
“But I know that I have to.”