I respectfully disagree with several of the statements Rob Port made in his March 18th column , "Schools shouldn't have excused students for anti-gun protests." I have five questions that I think Port should explore.
• First, isn't the demonstration also about school safety? You failed to mention that the students were also promoting school safety. The graduating class of 2018 was born the same year as the Columbine shooting. Unlike many adults, those that are about to graduate in the next couple of months do not remember a time when school shootings were rare and almost unheard of.
• Second, why frame your statements using the words "gun violence?" You use some clever framing in your choice of words. You mention that gun violence is down and in the same sentence declare that school shootings have declined in both incidence and body counts over the past 25 years. I think it would be more accurate to inform the reader that there have been 39 active shooting incidents between 2000-2013 that occurred in educational environments that resulted in 117 individuals killed and 120 wounded, according to FBI: A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States Between 2000 and 2013. On Feb. 15, 2018, The New York Times reported 239 school shootings since 2012, where 138 people were killed. Third, do you think comparing a student losing his or her life in a bicycle accident is a fair comparison to a mass killing during a school shooting? Isn't one an accident and one an act of terror?
• Next, are you trying to emphasize that schools should allow any student to demonstrate for any cause cloaked in free speech? You are minimizing the impact of what these students have accomplished. The students are leading a nationwide demonstration that we have not seen in decades. It is not simply occuring in Fargo or Bemidji. You are missing the context of the demonstration. This was a nationwide movement led by students that gained traction in every state of the union. You minimize the student demonstration by making it sound like if Joe Student has a gripe then the school should allow him to demonstrate.
• Fourth, are you worried that a 17-minute non-violent demonstration is a critical class disruption? Would you be surprised to find out there are daily disruptions in a typical classroom. Students being called to the office, sports teams leaving during the day, losing class time due to a blizzard.
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• Finally, did you know that parents can excuse their children from school? Parents excuse their children from the school building every day. They are called "excused absences" for the purpose of doctor appointments, family vacations, and even spending time with Grandma over lunch break. Heck, I hear some parents even excuse their students to attend state basketball tournaments.
"Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth." William Faulkner
Aas, a native of Valley City, N.D., earned a graduate degree at North Dakota State University. He currently lives in Tenstrike, Minn., and works as a social studies teacher at Bemidji (Minn.) High School.
