Dear Ralph,
Yesterday, I met with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to discuss her plans for President Trump’s new commission on school safety, and I left extremely disappointed.
Coming into this meeting, I appreciated the chance to directly ask Secretary DeVos about the real, meaningful steps I hoped she would take while leading this commission to address the risk of future gun violence. Instead, she couldn’t (or wouldn’t) tell me that the NRA wouldn’t have a veto in this process, what the timeline would be, or if she would put survivors of gun violence, families of victims, or experts on the commission (she indicated that she wouldn’t!).
And when I urged Secretary DeVos to consider moving quickly on common sense gun violence prevention measures, like raising the age to buy assault weapons and establishing universal background checks for gun purchases, she pushed back.
What Secretary DeVos clearly doesn’t understand is that we cannot afford to waste any more time when it comes to acting on gun violence: our children’s lives depend on it.
Right now, based on my meeting with Secretary DeVos, I have no confidence that this commission will do what is needed to actually protect children across the country from the epidemic of mass shootings.
But I am confident and deeply proud of the thousands of students and teachers organizing, marching, and speaking out nationwide on this issue today.
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