Texas educators call for action on gun control
TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Educators across Texas are calling for action on gun control, while vowing to not let lawmakers sidestep the consequences of doing nothing.
"We cannot allow people to forget. We can't forget," says Texas AFT President Zeph Capo.
"What has to change is our response. We didn't do enough after Santa Fe. I don't want some other community to have to feel that same way. I don't want some other teacher or leader to not go home. That's what this fight is about."
Texas AFT, a statewide teachers' union, surveyed more than 5,100 members as well as parents following the Uvalde massacre. Releasing the findings today, Capo says some 90% of school employees worry about a shooting happening at their school.
But he says arming them is not the answer. According to survey responses, some 77% of those responding say 'no' to that.
"They want to know 'are they gonna require me to tote a gun'? If they're going to require me to tote a gun, I can't continue to stay in this profession'," says Capo of members' concerns. "They expect me to pay for weapons training, cleaning and storage? They can't even pay for school supplies in my classroom."
Other survey findings:
- 87% support comprehensive background checks
- 87% support "red-flag warnings"
- 85% support raising minimum age for legal gun purchase
- 75% support a ban on assault weapons
According to Texas AFT, the responses from school employees alone showed even greater support for gun control measures.
To do nothing, educators say, will worsen the teacher shortage already at a crisis level due to the pandemic. According to the teachers union survey, "just under half of Texas school employees say the Uvalde school shooting may affect their decision to return."
For teachers and students, fear, educators say, is now an unspoken part of the curriculum.
"It's unconscionable, it really is," says Katrina Rasmussen, a Dallas teacher and parent. "It's not right. It's not healthy. It's not healthy for our kids and as teachers, we are fed up!"
Rasmussen says that fear is changing our children, before her very eyes.
"You could see it on the kids' faces, you could see it in their posture. They're prepared for nothing to change. And I think that's really heartbreaking."
Rasmussen was among those sharing stories from education's front lines as the survey results were released. She is hopeful that Uvalde will force more people to say 'enough'.
"These are our kids. More important than political gains, or currying favor with the NRA. These are our future," says Rasmussen. "But over and over and over again... nothing changes and the rhetoric just spins and spins. So, what are these children dying for? And that's a horrifying thought."
