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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 4, 2000

News Release

NEA Event Brings Focus to School Safety and Common Sense Gun Controls

Chicago, IL - National Education Association (NEA) President Bob Chase urged delegates attending this week's annual Representative Assembly in Chicago to channel their collective energy toward action to protect children and to keep schools safe.

"Statistics tell us that school violence is in fact declining," said Chase. "Statistics tell us that less than one-half of one percent of the children killed by guns in the United States are at school, on school grounds, or on the way to or from school. But we take no comfort in these statistics, the NEA President added, because, "real life keeps intervening." Chase reflected on the death of six-year old Kayla Rolland in Beecher, Michigan, and the shootings last year of six students at Ballou Senior High School in Washington, D.C. The NEA leader joined the 10,000 delegates from across the nation in a moment of silence to honor slain middle school teacher Barry Grunow - shot and killed by a 13-year old student on the last day of school in Lake Worth, Florida.

"Last year, the NEA made a solemn vow," Chase continued, "that we might not be able to stop the violence, but we must do everything in our power to stop as much of it as we can." He detailed the actions taken by the education association over the last twelve months, including creation of the NEA Safe Schools Now Network, which provides original safety programming free to schools; support of the Million Mom March; and a crisis communications guide now widely used in school districts across America to bring communities together to prevent violence.

Bob Chase issued a "call to action" for common-sense gun measures. The call was echoed by several NEA members whose lives had been touched by violence. Nebraska teacher Andy Pope, shot by a 13-year old student several years ago, called on delegates to deliver tens of thousands of postcards to Congress as a sign of their commitment to keeping children safe from gunfire. Arlene Thomas, a Camden, New Jersey school security officer urged NEA members to become active cyberlobbyists for sensible gun laws. Seventeen-year-old Guillermo Morales, a Los Angeles student, urged the crowd of education employees to join his efforts to help kids stay safe through mentoring and community programs.

"We will be heard, my friends," said Bob Chase. "We can and we will make a difference."

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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing more than 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support personnel, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.