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It seems the GOP has a low opinion of teachers. We hear them basically calling teachers communist and socialist, accusing them of turning children LBGTQ or anti-racist.
Yet the GOP, apparently so desperate to avoid real gun safety laws based upon data and research, want the same teachers that they say are the root of all evil to carry guns in their classroom.
This is the myth of the good guy with a gun. Yet professional good guys, armed guards and armed police officers, have proven themselves insufficient at protecting our children.
It seems schools are to be turned into prisons with walls and barbed wire, recess will be held in a concrete yard. Children are to be denied a normal childhood because roughly 30 percent of people will be angry if military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines are restricted in any way.
Instead, the GOP should listen to teachers when they demand on-site student mental health services, smaller classes, more support for students with special needs — particularly students who have suffered so much pain and loss caused by the opioid epidemic, COVID-19, and gun violence.
Chances are if we live long enough, every American has a family member or friend who died by gun.
Donna Twombly
Bangor
