National Education Association – A pragmatic approach to immigration is critical for our students –the center of our communities. All students should have the opportunity to learn without the fear and distress that result from unfair immigration policies. Educators are witnessing the impact of this trauma on for our students, their families and our communities firsthand.

Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights – ICIRR is dedicated to promoting the rights of immigrants and refugees to full and equal participation in the civic, cultural, social, and political life of our diverse society.

Between 2013 and 2015, an average of two school shootings each month took place at K-12 schools nationwide, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. School violence happens so frequently that some are calling this generation of students the “Mass Shooting Generation.”

This is not the first time students have been leaders for change. They braved fire hoses and fierce dogs throughout the South to champion civil rights in the 1960s. Young people also took the lead in 1968, after NEA organized the Project 18 drive to lower the voting age from 21 to 18. Some people wrote their movement off as “another children’s crusade,” but ultimately, Congress approved the 26th Amendment in 1971.

Email Congress through the NEA Legislative Action Center to pressure representatives to pass common-sense gun laws and listen to the voices of educators and students.

Resources are available for helping school communities cope with this latest mass shooting and to assist educators in talking with students about school shootings and other traumatic events.

Ask your school board to oppose arming educators, using this a sample resolution.

NEA’s Crisis Guide helps schools prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from tragedies like school shootings. Download the guide.