Beto visits middle school Civics class,girl asks emotional question about gun violence (Get Tissues)

[Indygram]

Last edited Mon May 6, 2019, 11:13 PM - Edit history (2)

I just finished watching the video of this and I was in tears listening to a girl ask what Beto would do about gun violence. My God, we NEED to protect children from feeling this way. Incredibly intelligent kids with fantastic questions.

https://www.facebook.com/betoorourke/videos/464929707596869/

For those without facebook, a clip of the gun violence question and answer

Link to tweet

[elleng]

2. Getting more upset every day, my 2 grandsons are about to enter kindergarten,

my 3 year old granddaughter is in pre-K, and my 'last' granddaughter is about to be born.

[Indygram]

3. I am so glad that my kids are all adults now

I have a grandson in 3rd grade, though, and his mother plans to do public virtual school as soon as he is more independent about doing his work. It's something on our minds all the time. It doesn't help that the county where we live is very red and they have now taken to hiring non-law enforcement "resource officers" to guard the elementary schools. We do NOT like that at all.

[DesertRat]

12. We've had resource officers in our local schools for many years

In our area they are only in the Title One schools (probably a funding issue). As a former teacher and now volunteer, I love having the officer there. On our campuses they mainly act as law-related educators and counselors and for a lot of the kids, a positive role model. They obviously can provide protection if needed, but they don't act as "guards".

Here's more info. https://nasro.org/frequently-asked-questions/

[Indygram]

13. These "Resource Officers" are NOT trained police officers, though

These people being hired to be armed in elementary schools have never been police officers or even military personnel. They get some kind of training but they don't go through the same level of psychological testing and training as police officers do.

I support resource officers who are actually properly trained. I don't support hiring mall security types, though.

[DesertRat]

14. They are "actually properly trained"

To call them "mall security types" is uninformed and insulting. Read the link I provided in my reply above.

A school resource officer, by federal definition, is a career law enforcement officer with sworn authority who is deployed by an employing police department or agency in a community-oriented policing assignment to work in collaboration with one or more schools.

[Indygram]

18. I am talking about what they did in MY district

They did NOT hire career law enforcement officers. They opened up the role to hire "armed guards" (like mall cops) who do NOT have to have ANY law enforcement experience whatsoever. They did this for elementary students. The county had meetings and were deciding between spending more money to only hire career law enforcement officers or save money and hire "armed guards" that the school district would "train." Because I live in a red county they opted for armed guards instead of legitimate resource officers. So yes, they ARE putting "mall cop" types in elementary schools who have zero law enforcement experience. I'm in Florida where they decided to allow schools to "deputize" staff as "armed guardians" and that is what this district opted to do...which is completely ignorant.

[theaocp]

4. I don't do FB.

What did he say?

[Indygram]

5. I found a clip of the last bit of her question and his response on twitter for those not on facebook

Link to tweet

[Indygram]

7. Can anyone enlighten me on what keeps getting self-deleted?

One post I can see...but two?

[crazytown]

8. I have deleted my comments

about how heart breaking this video is. I tried to express myself in a way that didn’t sound condescending or overly emotional, but could not. Her’s a well spoken student asking a question about gun violence, and ends up weeping, sounding like a frightened little girl. It’s horrible to watch.

[Indygram]

9. Thanks for explaining

I didn't get to see what you said before you deleted them and I am admittedly very nosy.

It is heartbreaking yet important for all of us to see. It is important for Beto to see that too because it will stay with him forever and will make him fight even harder. He actually carries the photo of a girl who was killed in the Texas school shooting in his wallet so he never forgets how important a fight this is.

[crazytown]

11. Politics is failing our children

America is failing her children. I can’t find the words. That girl made a difference by speaking out. As a parent it’s the sort of occasion, I would sit down and recount the story of Rosa Parks.

[NYMinute]

10. I love how well he answered that question.

Beto is just warming up and he will go far in the primaries.

[Indygram]

15. Me too

I was in tears listening to her when her voice started breaking up.

[MustLoveBeagles]

16. Another great Q&A

Informative and very heartbreaking. Why are we putting children through this?

[Indygram]

17. Did you watch the Climate Round Table Discussion from today?

That was excellent and included many local Iowan experts on a variety of Climate related topics. One man said he ended up getting involved in "green" topics because the plant he worked him stopped manufacturing what it had been and started making turbine blades. I had never thought about the manufacturing aspect of the subject and how that could help the rust belt. He really should sell that idea there.

[MustLoveBeagles]

19. I haven't seen that one yet but I have it bookmarked