PLATFORM : A Bad Vote on Guns
In what could become one of its most controversial and reviled decisions, the Los Angeles Board of Education voted to overturn its own policy requiring the immediate expulsion of students who are caught with firearms on campus. This shortsighted decision is an outrage both for school personnel and students it places at grave risk.
The board’s decision sends a clear message to offenders that weapons are permitted. The board has placed the 99% of the students who respect the safety of others at the mercy of a few who break the rules.
We have an obligation to help offenders change. However, there should be only one lesson imparted to any student who carries a firearm onto the schoolyard, and that is immediate expulsion. We cannot wait until someone dies to make the rule and make it stick.
We need a safe place for our 650,000 students, the majority of whom are already front-line victims of a neglected society, and for teachers who are their hope for the future.
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