In the wake of the recent school shooting in Parkland, Fla., the Watertown School Committee passed a resolution asking for strengthening gun control laws and improving mental health services for students. Also, some students at the high school will have their own response to the shootings.
The School Committee began its meeting Monday with a moment of silence for the 17 people killed during the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on Feb. 14, 2018. Later in the evening, the School Committee unanimously passed the resolution at Monday night’s meeting.
The resolution calls for State and Federal lawmakers to support laws and regulations that:
- Insure thorough background checks and waiting periods before adults can purchase or own guns
- Prohibit the presence of guns on school property, unless by a law enforcement officer
- Ban the sale of semi-automatic, assault-style weapons as well as high-capacity
magazines or clips - Strengthen counseling and mental health services for students
School Committee member Lindsay Mosca said she thinks that the resolution was the right step for the board to take, and said that she does not see it as a political issue but one of concern for students’ safety.
“The statement is so important to us because we are asked to fund things like professional development on things like school security and to strengthen our borders and other things,” Mosca said. “All of that feels so frivolous when there is actually measures that other governments in this world have taken that have proven to save lives of children in schools. The idea that we as can publicly say as a body that we fundamentally care about safety of students in schools to the point that that we want we want real solutions, not fake ones, I think is important.”
School Committee Chairman John Portz said the resolution will be shared with Watertown’s elected representatives on the state and federal levels.
Students at Watertown High School will have the chance to protest gun violence along with students around the nation on National School Walk Out Movement, which takes place March 14.
Superintendent Dede Galdston stressed that while the schools are supporting the students right to express their feelings and opinions on the issue, school officials are not running the event.
“As a school system we have a delicate balance between promoting and supporting,” Galdston said. “We, ourselves, the schools are not a political body but we certainly want to honor and encourage our students’ First Amendment rights. But we want to do that in a very a responsible, safe way.”
Students can choose whether or not they want to join the National Walk Out Movement at WHS.
“We also recognize this is a choice for students. It is not something that we would ever require students to do and I am sure many students will not participate,” Galdston said. “But students who wish to, we want to make sure they are safe. That’s what our intention is, to provide them with that safe opportunity, while they themselves are the ones that have to organize the effort.”
I’d like to know where these people get their information from, apparently they’re unaware that MA has prohibited firearms in schools since at least 1998 (and that
includes colleges and universities as well). Furthermore, MA already has one of
the most stringent, and thorough background check procedures in the country.
Waiting periods? MA already has a de facto waiting period, it’s called an FID or
LTC, and the waiting time to obtain one can take as long as 6 months or more
in some communities.
The sale of “assault-style weapons” and “high-capacity magazines or clips” has also
been tightly regulated and/or banned since that same year, and which has been
banned entirely since 07/20/16 due to a highly questionable edict from the AG’s office.
But anyhow, there is one suggestion I’d like to make… include firearms safety and awareness education as part of the school curriculum at an early age. Children,
kids need to know that ANY type of firearm demands a whole lot of respect and caution. I’d highly recommend the ‘NRA’s Eddie Eagle’ program to fulfill that niche
https://eddieeagle.nra.org but who am I kidding, the education system here would
never allow it.
No they would not thank God!
Thanks to the School Committee for taking a stand and supporting gun safety and mental health services. It is a valuable lesson for our students here in town. And Massachusetts’ regulations demand further conversation along with those of the cities and towns, all in support of gun safety. I hope the schools are managing to teach critical thinking from the earliest ages through high school–the only way to stand up to fake news. How can we teach kids to have fun without killing in video games and the resultant idealization of weapons and numbing to violence? Let’s make it easy for high school students to register to vote and pre-register to vote if their birthdays will fall on, or before election day this year. I will be there to support our WHS students as they stand for gun safety March 14 at 10AM for 17 minutes to honor those who died at Parkland. We will also register voters there.
This is how the school committee uses time! Use time to give reasons for state police bringing a part of the group into custody. Search warrants and taking away computers is a Watertown problem. Deal with this problem!