More than half of American teachers are worried about a school shooting on their campus; parents are worried, too

1 in 4 U.S. teachers experienced a gun-related lockdown
at their school. (Adobe stock photo)

U.S. teachers must deftly manage tasks, lessons and discipline. To get the job done, educators make an average of 1,500 decisions a day. While that description sounds challenging, most teachers have the added worry of facing school gun violence, reports Jennifer Gerson of The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom for social issues.

"The majority of American K-12 public school teachers say they are at least somewhat worried about the possibility of a shooting at their school, according to a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center," Gerson writes. "Fifty-nine percent told Pew researchers that they were concerned about shootings on their campuses, with 18% saying they were 'very' or 'extremely' worried. Only 7% of teachers polled said they were not worried at all."

More than two decades have passed since the Columbine High School massacre, but those years have not produced an answer to gun threats in schools. Gerson reports, "Last year, roughly 1 in 4 American teachers reported experiencing a gun-related lockdown at their school. Fifteen percent of respondents said they went through one emergency lockdown, with another 8 percent saying that it happened where they teach more than once."

Regardless of party affiliation, most surveyed teachers advocated for student mental health screening as part of the solutions. "A large majority — 69% — said they believed improving mental health screening and treatment for children and adults would be extremely or very effective in preventing school shootings," Gerson explains. "This emphasis was held across party lines, with 73% of Democratic teachers and 66% of Republican teachers saying that investment in mental health resources would be an extremely or very effective prevention tool."

Teachers aren't alone in their safety concerns -- many parents also profess a significant degree of worry. "A Pew Research Center study released last fall found that a third of American parents said they were extremely or very worried about a shooting at their child's school, with an additional 37 percent saying they were somewhat worried," Gerson reports.

Once a shunned gun, the AR-15 is now America's most popular firearm; it was never intended for public use

Image from The Washington Post

How did a gun that was never made for mass use become America's favorite? The AR-15's beginnings are quiet: "Originally designed as a soldiers’ rifle in the late 1950s. 'An outstanding weapon with phenomenal lethality,' an internal Pentagon report raved. It soon became standard issue for U.S. troops in the Vietnam War, where the weapon earned a new name: the M16," report Todd C. Frankel, Shawn Boburg, Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker and Alex Horton of The Washington Post. "Few gunmakers saw a semiautomatic version of the rifle as a product for ordinary people. It didn’t seem suited for hunting. It seemed like overkill for home defense. Gun executives doubted many buyers would want to spend their money on one. . . . The industry’s biggest trade shows banished the AR-15 to the back."

The move to market the AR-15 "began after the 2004 expiration of a federal assault weapons ban that had blocked the sales of many semiautomatic rifles. A handful of manufacturers saw a chance to ride a post-9/11 surge in military glorification. . . . This transformation — from made-for-combat weapon to mass-market behemoth and cultural flash point — is the product of a sustained and intentional effort that has forged an American icon," the Post writes. Randy Luth, the founder of gunmaker DPMS, one of the earliest companies to market AR-15s, told the Post, “We made it look cool. The same reason you buy a Corvette.”

The numbers tell the story: "Ten of the 17 deadliest U.S. mass shootings since 2012 have involved AR-15s. . . . after repeated mass killings involving the AR-15 that accounted for some of the nation’s darkest moments, efforts in Congress to resurrect an assault weapons ban repeatedly fizzled," the Post reports. "Calls by Democratic politicians to renew the ban fell short, with some in their own party voting against it at key moments. Almost no Republican would even entertain the idea." Sen. Chris Murphy, a vocal supporter of stronger gun laws, told the Post, “The protection of the AR-15 has become the number one priority for the gun lobby. It makes it harder to push this issue on the table because the gun lobby does so much messaging around it.”

Associated Press table from Northeastern U. Mass Killing Database

"Today, the AR-15 is the best-selling rifle in the United States, industry figures indicate. About 1 in 20 U.S. adults — or roughly 16 million people — own at least one AR-15. . . . Today, the industry estimates that at least 20 million AR-15s are stored and stashed across the country," the Post reports. "Video games introduced a new generation to the AR-15 through popular first-person shooter games such as 'Call of Duty.' Players got to simulate using military weapons with down-to-the-bolt realism."

The Post provides an AR-15 convert as an example: "Bill Shanley saw his first AR-15 up close when one of his adult sons came home with one in 2010. Father and son took the AR-15 to a gun range. Shanley couldn’t believe how loud it was. . . . . But the black rifle had little recoil. It was fun to shoot. Three shots with his old hunting rifle bruised his shoulder. Fifty rounds with the AR-15 felt like a breeze. Shanley was sold. He soon bought his own, a Smith & Wesson M&P 15." Shanley told the Post, "The AR is the modern-day musket."

"The AR-15 was also especially alluring to the gunman who killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo in May 2022," the Post writes. "'The AR-15 and its variants are very deadly when used properly,' he wrote in a manifesto filled with hateful vitriol. 'Which is the reason I picked one.'. . . Ten days later, 19 schoolchildren and two adults were shot to death in Uvalde, Tex., with another AR-15, the Daniel Defense DDM4."

Quick hits: Many fireworks displays canceled; fewer of us drink milk; rural Texas students fight local book bans

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

Communities across the nation are canceling their Independence Day fireworks displays because of wildfire hazards, supply-chain issues and worker shortages. Read more here.

In a town near Uvalde, Texas, teachers have carried weapons since 2013. Parents say they feel safer. Read more here.

An LGBTQ high school student in rural Texas organized students to fight the local school board's book bans. Read more here.

A recent study says that lack of water costs families, communities and the U.S. economy $8.58 billion each year. Read more here.

Bird-flu outbreaks are slowing down, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture is urging poultry farmers to be ready for a possible resurgence in the fall. Read more here.

Consumption of fluid cow's milk is continuing a downward trend that is proving difficult to reverse, according to a new USDA report. Read more here.

Bipartisan gun deal includes funding for telehealth coverage for Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program

In response to recent violent shootings, the Senate is moving an 80-page bipartisan deal meant to reduce gun violence. One provision, not widely reported, to expand telehealth coverage for patients with Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program coverage so more people can access mental health-care, Cara Smith reports for Inside Health Policy.

A maximum of 18 months after the bill becomes law, the Department of Health and Human Services would be required to provide technical assistance and guidance to states to improve telehealth access for Medicaid and CHIP enrollees. "The guidance would address adopting telehealth flexibilities to expand access to care, billing codes and practices, integrating telehealth services into value-based care models, strategies to deliver culturally competent care via telehealth and other best practices," Smith reports. The language in that part of the bill is identical to that of legislation released in May by the Senate Finance Committee.

"Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., the lead Democratic negotiator, is hailing the bill as the biggest breakthrough on the issue of gun violence in 30 years and predicted Tuesday it would save lives," Alexander Bolton reports for The Hill. "Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the head Republican in the talks, says the legislation will take guns out of the hands of people who are dangerous or break the law but won’t affect the gun rights of law-abiding citizens."

Here are some other provisions in the bill:

• Enhanced background checks for gun buyers under 21, to search juvenile criminal records. This provision would expire in 2032, so a future Congress would have to vote to extend it.
• Expand a grant program that allows states to use federal funding to implement crisis-intervention programs to reduce gun violence. States could use the money to support "red flag" laws to take guns away from people deemed a danger to themselves or others but would not be required to have such laws, a key Republican point at the end of negotiations.
• Close the "boyfriend loophole," meaning a person convicted of misdemeanor violence against a recent dating partner would lose the right to buy or possess a firearm for at least five years.
• Require the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide states with resources to expand mental-health programs in schools.
• Expand Medicaid funding for certified community behavioral health clinics, allowing up to 10 new states to opt into the program every 10 years.
• Establish a new, specific criminal offense for gun traffickers and straw purchasers with tougher penalties.

School probe wins Arkansas weekly Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Journalism from Harvard's Nieman Foundation

Madison County Record photo by Shannon Hahn

The Madison County Record, a rural Arkansas weekly with a staff of five, beat out The Washington Post and a collaboration of the Miami Herald and ProPublica to win the 2021 Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Journalism from Harvard University's Nieman Foundation.

The Record won for its "unflinching investigation . . . into attempts by the Huntsville, Ark., school board to cover up sexual assault allegations by junior high school basketball players," said the award announcement. The paper, which has a circulation of 4,000, "found that the local school board members sought to conceal not only the assault allegations but also their decision to reduce the recommended punishment for some students and to throw out punishment for others."

The package is called "Title IX," after the federal civil-rights law that prohibits excluding Americans from educational programs on the basis of sex. The Record began its investigation after concerned parents shared Title IX documents with the paper because they worried the district wouldn't be transparent in its review of the assaults. The paper investigated via interviews and records requests, and turned down other papers' offers of partnership in order to protect sources' anonymity.

Huntsville in Madison County
(Wikipedia map)

When the school district tried to get a gag order to prevent sources from speaking to the paper, The Record hired legal counsel and got a favorable ruling. "The reporters persisted in their investigation despite public backlash, a loss of advertising, and letters and social media comments that questioned their integrity and attacked their decision to print the stories," the Nieman Foundation reports. "Due to the attention The Record’s reporting brought to the school board, in February 2022, 19 people filed to run for seven school board seats. In comparison, no one filed during the last school board election. The Huntsville School District also admitted to several FOIA violations and a district judge ordered board members to undergo FOIA training."

One Taylor Award judge, USA Today investigative reporter Pat Beall, praised The Record: "This small paper was punching far, far above its weight class, from its initial decision to publish stories critical of the community’s popular basketball team to its willingness to push back on violations of public-meeting laws. This strong, impactful series cannot be read outside the context of how the fairness and accuracy of these stories, published by a family-owned, third-generation newspaper in a small community where school basketball is king, would have been challenged in ways no national or major regional news organization would have experienced. These stories allowed the voices of young victims to eloquently rebut the adults’ attempts to dismiss the abuse."

Pandemic roundup: Violence against school staff rose during the pandemic, but rural teachers seem less affected

Here's a roundup of recent news stories about the pandemic and vaccination efforts:

The largest trial to date shows that ivermectin, usually a veterinary medicine, didn't reduce people's chances of being hospitalized with Covid-19. Read more here.

Moderna says its newest trial data shows that its coronavirus vaccine produced a strong immune response in children under 6. The vaccine proved moderately effective in reducing Omicron-variant infections overall. Based on the positive results and the need for vaccines for young children, Moderna will seek approval for its vaccine to be administered to 6-to-11-year-olds. Read more here.

Some states are reducing daily reporting of coronavirus data. Some researchers and public-health officials worry that could lead to blind spots, but others say metrics like hospitalizations and wastewater monitoring have become more relevant than daily reports. Read more here.

On Friday, the U.S. Conference of Mayors pleaded with Congress to extend federal pandemic food aid, currently set to expire in July. Read more here.

A recent American Psychological Association report highlights violence against educators and school staff during the pandemic. One-third of teachers surveyed said they've experienced at least one incident of verbal abuse, violence, or the threat of violence from students. More than 40% of school administrators surveyed reported verbal or threatening violence from parents during the 2020-21 school year. About 37% of public-school employees said they wanted to quit. Though the study didn't give a percentage, it said rural employees were less likely to report wanting to quit than their urban and suburban counterparts. Rural teachers were also less likely to report wanting to transfer to another school (24% suburban vs. 18% rural). Read more here and here.

How Sandy Hook helped alter the gun-control conversation: more state and local gun-control laws in the last 7 years

A snapshot of the range of gun-control laws in the states as of 2018.
(Business Insider map; click to enlarge it)

It's been seven years and two days since 26 people — 20 of them children — were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The shooting was so shocking that it touched off a major shift in the national conversation about gun control and has led to new laws in many states and localities, Reid Wilson reports for The Hill.

"In the years since Sandy Hook, 21 state legislatures have expanded background-check requirements on various types of gun sales," Wilson reports. "Seventeen states, mostly those controlled by Democrats, have passed red-flag laws that allow law enforcement to take guns away from someone who may pose a danger to themselves or others. And 28 states have enacted laws requiring those convicted of domestic abuse to give up their firearms."

The move toward more gun-control measures has also sparked pro-gun rights measures in more conservative states and localities. "Several states have passed measures expanding the right to carry concealed firearms, even without a permit, and others are moving to allow firearms on school grounds as part of a response to mass shootings," Wilson reports. "In the last seven years, the NRA counts more than 460 pro-gun measures that have passed state legislatures."

The biggest change is that guns are no longer the "third rail of American politics," Wilson writes. Gun control used to be mainly a rural vs. urban issue, and Reid notes that rural Democrats were once the source of some of the most vehement gun-rights legislation. But gun control has become increasingly a partisan issue over the past few decades, and these days, "backing stricter gun laws, once a sure path to defeat in rural and suburban communities, has become a winning issue — or at least a neutral issue — for some candidates."

That might have to do with the increased political spending from anti-gun and gun-safety groups as the NRA becomes less popular (and has less money to spend on lobbying). "In 2018, gun-control groups spent more than the NRA on campaigns and elections for the first time in recent memory," Wilson reports. "The following year, those groups outspent the NRA by a huge margin in Virginia, home of the NRA’s headquarters."

Fact-checking the Democratic debate

Last night, the top 10 Democratic primary candidates took the state at Texas Southern University in Houston for a three-hour debate. Here's a brief run-down of issues with rural resonance, as well as some fact-checking of the candidates' answers.

On fact-checking, the candidates' claims mostly passed the smell test. The New York Times fact-checkers noted that Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont exaggerated when he said that 500,000 Americans are going bankrupt because of medical bills. According to several studies, income losses from illness contributed to bankruptcy; the fact-checkers note that universal health care would not address that problem.

In an attempt to distance himself from Trump's immigration policies, Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration "didn't lock people up in cages" or separate families. That was misleading, the fact-checkers said, since the Obama administration built some detention facilities at the border. However, they write, those facilities were never meant for long-term detention of children. Biden is correct that Obama did not have a policy of separating families at the border, they note, and said people were only separated if the children were suspected of being unrelated to the adults (trafficked, in other words).

On the issues: ABC News national correspondent Linsey Davis asked about criminal justice reform; that's an area of concern for rural residents, which struggle with overcrowded county jails while often counting private prisons as major local employers.

Sen. Kamala Harris of California said she wants to take the profit out of the criminal justice system, and promised to shut down for-profit prisons on her first day as president. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota proposed reducing the sentences of nonviolent offenders in state and local jails, whom she says make up 90% of the incarcerated. Vice President Joe Biden said too many people are in jail who should not be in jail, and that we must make rehabilitation our goal. No one should be in jail for a nonviolent crime, especially a drug problem, he said, and proposed building more rehab centers instead of prisons. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said the criminal justice system is unfair to the poor, and that 17,000 people are in jail unjustly today.

ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir asked the candidates about mass shooting and gun rights. He noted that Biden sponsored a measure to require extended background checks after the deadly Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012, but that the measure did not pass the Senate.

Biden said he had beaten the National Rifle Association before because he had helped shepherd the Brady Bill through the Senate. He also said that more than 50% of NRA members supported his post-Sandy Hook proposals, and said more than 90% of Americans now believe assault weapons should be banned. Harris affirmed that she would ban imports of AR-15 rifles within her first 100 days and said Trump was encouraging mass shooters with his tweets.

Former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke said he had discussed his assault weapon buyback proposal at a gun show in Conway, Arkansas, and said some people who were selling assault weapons there were open to giving them up because of the shootings. Klobuchar, who proposed a voluntary buyback program, noted that that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was sitting on three bills to limit gun rights, and that passing those bills could bring about change more quickly than waiting for one of them to get elected president.

Booker said the majority of gun owners agreed with him that more gun-control is needed. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said that mass shootings get more headlines than everyday gun deaths from suicide and domestic abuse, and said Congress is beholden by gun lobbyists and must be reformed so it works for people other than the wealthy and well-connected. Sanders said he was proud to get an F rating from the NRA and promised comprehensive gun reform.

Jorge Ramos of Univision asked Booker if others should emulate his vegan diet or try to eat less meat because of concerns about climate change. Booker said no, but said he had sponsored a bill to stop corporate consolidation in the ag industry because large-scale farming operations hurt the environment and small family farmers. Booker also decried inadequate medical care for military veterans through the VA system, and said we must prioritize their care.

On the subject of climate change, O'Rourke said farmers must be given incentives to adopt greener practices like no-till farming and planting cover crops, and that more land should be kept under conservation.

Mayor Pete Buttegieg of South Bend, Indiana, said that he had seen very rural, conservative communities in Iowa grow after embracing immigration. So, he said, his plan for revitalizing rural economies includes expanding community renewal visas to increase the local population and make them more attractive to potential employers.

The main debate on health care was whether the candidates supported a single-payer system (Medicare for All) or a public option that retains the private insurance system. Warren, who supports single-payer, said passing the measure would not require people to switch health care providers or locations, even in rural areas; the biggest difference, she said, would be where the bill is sent.

Explainer details history of background-check debate

Gun control is the subject of increasing debate, especially the question of whether to expand background checks for people seeking to buy firearms. A particular note of contention: Background checks are required for purchases from gun stores, but most states do not require them for gun-show purchases, which account for 22 percent of all gun purchases in the U.S. today. It's a fraught subject in rural America, where guns are part of the local culture.

Dan Freedman of the Times Union in Albany, N.Y., provides a great explainer on the history of the background-check debate that reaches back to 1986. Congress passed the Firearms Owners Protection Act that year, which banned the production and possession of most fully automatic machine guns. The act didn't make many headlines, "but in retrospect, this innocuous-sounding piece of legislation contained the seeds that sprouted into the debate over expanded background checks underway yet again on Capitol Hill in the aftermath of mass shootings in Ohio and Texas," Freedman reports.

That's because the FOPA Act specified which gun sellers needed a federal firearms license and which didn't. Gun owners who buy, sell, or exchange firearms only occasionally for a hobby or personal collection do not need a license. The National Rifle Association and the act's supporters in Congress (many Democrats from pro-gun rural districts) counted this as a major win, Freedman reports. With the legal blessing of the FOPA Act, gun shows became more popular.

Gun shows became even more popular after the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act passed in 1993. It mandated background checks for anyone who bought a firearm from a federally licensed dealer, but preserved the gun-show loophole. That encouraged more people to buy and sell at gun shows or online. Background checks are required for online sales across state lines, but not if the sale is within a state that doesn't require background checks as a matter of state law. Only 12 states require background checks on all sales, including private ones, Freedman reports.

The NRA opposes expanded background checks as an infringement on constitutional rights, and also because, its leaders argue, expanded background checks would not have prevented recent mass shootings. "But that equation may be changing with news reports saying the shooter in Midland-Odessa, Texas, was able to purchase a weapon privately after failing a background check because of a mental condition," Freedman reports.

A bill to expand background checks has passed the Democratic-controlled House but has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he will only bring a bill to the floor if President Trump says he will sign it, but "so far, Trump has not firmly committed himself in either direction," Freedman reports.

Walmart, Sam's Club and Kroger announce changes meant to curb gun violence, get mixed reactions

Yesterday retail giants Walmart and Kroger announced steps aimed at curbing gun violence. Walmart and Sam's Club made the first announcement, saying it will discontinue all sales of ammunition for short-barrel rifles, which can be used in military-style firearms, and handgun ammunition after their current stock runs out. The chain will also stop handgun sales in Alaska, the only state where it sells them, and will ask customers to not carry firearms openly unless they are law enforcement officers, even in "open carry" states, Lauren Thomas reports for CNBC.

The announcement came more than a month after two deadly shootings in Walmarts this summer. The company initially responded by removing displays for violent video games, but did not alter its gun sale or carry policies, Thomas reports. But yesterday, CEO Doug McMillon said that, though the company has stopped selling military-style rifles and most handguns, has raised the purchase age to 21, and placed more stringent background checks on buyers, "It’s clear to us that the status quo is unacceptable." The new policy will reduce Walmart's market share of ammunition from about 20% to 6-9%, he said.

Walmart will continue to allow customers with permits to carry concealed, but "if someone opts to openly carry a gun into one of its stores, it's up to the store manager's discretion as to how to react," reports Kate Gibson of CBS News. "In states like Alaska or Wyoming, where 'open-carry' is more common, the manager might pull the customer aside and ask him or her to leave the gun in their vehicle the next time. ... The reaction might be stronger 'if it's a situation where it's causing alarm'," a Walmart spokesman told Gibson.

McMillon also called on the nation's leaders to strengthen background-check laws and take weapons from people who pose an immediate danger. He equivocated on reauthorizing the assault-weapons ban, but said the U.S. must do more to determine the root causes that lead to shootings. He also offered to work with other retailers to make the industry safer, Thomas reports.

Kroger followed Walmart in asking non-law-enforcement customers to not carry openly, Thomas reports for CNBC. "We are also joining those encouraging our elected leaders to pass laws that will strengthen background checks and remove weapons from those who have been found to pose a risk for violence," Kroger Group Vice President of Corporate Affairs Jessica Adelman said..

Kroger began phasing out all firearm and ammo sales at its Fred Meyer stores in March 2018 after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which Adelman said demonstrated that "we recognize the growing chorus of Americans who are no longer comfortable with the status quo and who are advocating for concrete and common sense gun reforms," Thomas reports.

The announcements brought mixed reactions. On Twitter, many high-profile users interpreted the anti-open carry policy as mainly symbolic, though proponents of the move hailed it as a step in the right direction, and opponents panned it as virtue signaling, Aine Cain reports for Business Insider. 

One shopper at a Scranton-area Walmart said he disagreed with the decision, Peggy Lee reports for WNEP. "People have to protect themselves in the street. The street is bad right now, and if you don't have any bullets or something to defend yourself, how are you going to defend yourself?" Michael Caseo told Lee. But shopper Jessica Petche said she approved the move: "I think that's absolutely needed. I don't think weapons should be available everywhere."

Va. gun-control special session ends after 90 minutes

A special legislative session in Virginia meant to address gun-control laws ended in less than two hours on Tuesday after the Republican-led General Assembly adjourned the session and postponed action on gun laws until after the November election. "It was a familiar outcome in a stalled debate that plays out yearly in Virginia on an issue that has divided the nation for more than two decades," Alan Suderman and Sarah Rankin report for The Associated Press.

Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, called for the session after a May 31 shooting in Virginia Beach that killed 12. He hoped to have enough support from Republicans to overcome the GOP's razor-thin majority in both chambers and pass some of the eight measures he proposed. "But not a single vote was cast on the legislation. Republican leaders said the session was premature and politically motivated. They assigned the state’s bipartisan crime commission to study the Virginia Beach shooting and the governor’s proposed legislation," Suderman and Rankin report.

The session was fraught with drama even before it began. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment filed a surprise bill that would broadly ban guns in any government building in the state. Fellow Senate Republicans were horrified, and Sen. Bill Stanley resigned as majority whip in protest. Then Norment withdrew the bill, apologized, and reinstated Stanley, Suderman and Rankin report.

Both parties lambasted each other over the session. Republicans accused Northam of using the session to distract voters from the recent blackface scandal. The proposed measures, they said, would not have prevented the Virginia Beach shooting, and said the governor should have created a commission to study gun and mental health issues. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, then Virginia's governor, did something similar after a 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech. After that shooting, "the state passed a law prohibiting people deemed seriously mentally ill from buying a gun. But a push at the time for universal background checks failed," Suderman and Rankin report.

Democrats, in turn, "said Republicans were beholden to the gun lobby and afraid of passing common-sense laws they know will save lives," Suderman and Rankin report. "Virginia is generally considered a gun-friendly state and is home to the NRA headquarters. The GOP-led General Assembly has spiked numerous gun-control bills — including several Northam proposed for the special session — year after year."

Missouri weekly sheds light on violent bullying in small town

Edina, Missouri (Missourian map)

Big dailies often get the lion's share of attention (and newspaper awards), but stories like this prove that papers of all sizes produce great journalism -- like The Edina Sentinel, a weekly in the Missouri town of 1,200.

After hearing rumors of sexual assaults involving the Knox County Middle School football team, Editor Echo Menges investigated. Three seventh- and eighth-grade players had allegedly sodomized up to five fifth- and sixth-grade players with metal objects while other students watched, over the first several weeks of the football season.

Numerous people called the Sentinel, wanting to know the facts, but the school superintendent and sheriff wouldn't confirm details of the incident, and the school board wouldn't let parents talk about it at a recent meeting. So Menges began talking to the children and parents. The town's small size means the assaults are relevant to a higher percentage of the town, but also made it harder for Menges to investigate. Many of her sources insisted on anonymity, which she granted. If she's asked in court to reveal those sources and refuses, she would face jail time since Missouri doesn't have a shield law protecting journalists from having to reveal anonymous sources. But: "This is an important enough story that I would be willing to go to jail for it," Menges told Anna Brett of The Missourian, the newspaper of the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Mo.  The Sentinel published Editor Echo Menges' investigation last Friday.

Fact Check: Trump wrong about 'Medicare for all,' school violence funding; ad criticizing Tenn. Republican spins facts

Here's another installment of a series we are running weekly until Election Day, in which we list some of the most relevant items from FactCheck.org and other nonpartisan fact checkers. We encourage you to subscribe to their alerts, which you can do here, and republish their findings, which FactCheck lets anyone do for free with credit to them.

In President Trump's Oct. 10 op-ed for USA Today about 'Medicare for all' proposals, "almost every sentence contained a misleading statement or a falsehood," Glenn Kessler writes for The Washington Post's Fact Checker column. Kessler presumes the president must know that most of his claims have already been debunked by Fact Checker, since Trump links to two of them in his op-ed, but chose to ignore the facts. Trump is correct that the plan promoted by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., would cost the federal government $32.6 trillion over 10 years, but doesn't mention that overall national health expenditures might not increase because costs for individuals and state governments would go down. Kessler does a point-by-point debunking of Trump's claims in the op-ed; it's too long for us to detail here, but well worth the read. Read more here.

A TV ad criticizing Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., spins the facts about her votes on health-care issues, Lori Roberts reports for FactCheck.org. Majority Forward, an organization affiliated with the Democratic super PAC Senate Majority, launched the ad in early October to help Blackburn's Democratic challenger, former Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen. The ad claims Blackburn voted in 2012 to "give members of Congress health care for life," but lawmakers had already received a health insurance retirement benefit. "There was a possibility at the time that lawmakers could have lost the benefit, but that never happened," Roberts reports. The ad also says she voted in 2017 to take away maternity coverage, but that's not necessarily true. Her vote to repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would have meant that some states would no longer require insurers to offer maternity coverage, but insurers could still keep that coverage. Similar claims are likely being made against other Republican House members.

At an event for law enforcement officials, Trump said his administration's STOP School Violence Act had provided "historic levels of funding to improve school safety" and "hire more officers." But this is untrue, because the new law doesn't fund school safety at "historic levels," Eugene Kiely reports for FactCheck.org. The act, which was signed in March, was funded with $75 million shifted from an existing school safety program. "But a single program created in the late 1990s and since disbanded, called COPS in Schools, provided as much as $180 million in fiscal year 2000, according to a 2017 government report. That’s $260 million in 2018 dollars," Kiely reports.

Criminal-justice prof says studies show arming teachers is less effective than other measures against school shootings

"Arming teachers to protect against school shootings is likely less effective than other safety measures, including laws that hold gun owners responsible when minors get a hold of negligently stored firearms," says a research review written for the public-policy research arm of the State University of New York, reports Route Fifty.

The notion of arming teachers has gained popularity, especially in rural areas where gun ownership is higher and many schools fear they're too far away for law enforcement to reach in time. But there is little if any research to support the idea. "While no data exist to support the assertion that the presence of armed individuals has been or would be successful in stopping school shootings, there is evidence that indicates such a policy would fail to meet its intended goals," Jaclyn Schildkraut, a criminal-justice professor at SUNY Oswego, writes for the the Rockefeller Institute of Government. 

On the belief that an average civilian would be less accurate with a firearm than a law-enforcement officer, Schildkraut examined research that studied officers' accuracy rates in firearm discharges. A two-decade study found that officers' bullets hit their targets around 20 percent of the time, a figure that remained steady despite improvements in weaponry and training. Another study of New York City officers involved in active-shooter incidents found that the officers' accuracy was 30 percent when no one was shooting back at them, and 18 percent when someone was.

A person's ability to accurately fire a gun during a stressful situation may be hampered by the body's physical response to stress, even after training, Schildkraut writes: "Civilians receive considerably less firearms training in general as compared to law enforcement officers and such instruction does not typically include stress-inducing simulations. Thus, it is conceivable that their accuracy rate during a shooting would be considerably lower, even if they were to receive more extensive training." Also, if civilians have guns during an active-shooter situation, police responders have to spend extra time trying to figure out who is the shooter and who is an armed bystander, Schildkraut notes.

Research shows that civilians have had greater success in ending active-shooter situations without using a firearm, Schildkraut writes: "In sum, the evidence suggests that arming teachers (and other civilians) not only could fail to deter a school shooter, it potentially could make these events more lethal."

Here's help for covering stories that involve gun issues

When reporting on stories involving firearms, it's important to get the details right. Here are some resources to help.

Seven things journalists should know about guns: What percentage of gun deaths to mass shootings represent? Is 'assault rifle' an appropriate word? What's the difference between a bullet and a cartridge? Find out the answer to these questions and more from Seven things journalists should know about guns by Journalist's Resource.

Pew Research Center has assembled an in-depth list of their findings about Americans' attitudes about and experiences with firearms. Read more here.

Journalist's Resource, a service of the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University, has also provided a roundup of studies about safe gun storage. Read more here.

Education Department says school officials have always been able to use federal money to buy teachers guns

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Friday that she has "no intention of taking any action concerning the purchase of firearms or firearms training for school staff," a step that may allow state and local officials buy guns with funds from a grant program her department manages.

"Congress did not authorize me or the department to make those decisions," DeVos wrote, replying to a letter from Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia "and dozens of other Democratic lawmakers" concerned about the idea, Education Week reports.

In the school-safety package it passed in March, Congress said the money couldn't be used to buy guns, but that doesn't apply to Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants, a program "that makes no mention of prohibiting weapons purchases," The New York Times reported last week.

The Times said DeVos could "use her discretion to approve any state or district plans to use grant funding for firearms and firearm training," but one of her top deputies told Maria Danilova of The Associated Press that states have always had the power to decide how to use the money.

Frank Brogan, assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, said arming educators “is a good example of a profoundly personal decision on the part of a school or a school district or even a state,” Danilova reports, adding, "President Donald Trump and DeVos have said that schools may benefit from having armed teachers and should have that option. . . . Democrats and education groups have argued, however, that the funds are intended for academics, not guns."

"Democrats said they were outraged" by the statements fo Brogan and DeVos, Kimberly Hefling and Michael Stratford report for Politico.

U.S. Department of Education may let states use its grant funds to buy guns for teachers

The U.S. Department of Education is considering whether to allow states to use federal grant funding set aside for educational purposes and student services to buy guns for teachers.

"Such a move would reverse a longstanding position taken by the federal government that it should not pay to outfit schools with weapons," Erica Green reports for The New York Times. "And it would also undermine efforts by Congress to restrict the use of federal funding on guns. As recently as March, Congress passed a school safety bill that allocated $50 million a year to local school districts, but expressly prohibited the use of the money for firearms. But the department is eyeing a program in federal education law, the Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants, that makes no mention of prohibiting weapons purchases. That omission would allow the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, to use her discretion to approve any state or district plans to use grant funding for firearms and firearm training, unless Congress clarifies the law or bans such funding through legislative action."

Education Week reports that rural Arkansas teachers told the Federal School Safety Commission that sheriffs were 20 to 30 minutes away from their schools, and they felt arming teachers was the best way to keep their students safe.

But one Texas school says it and other rural schools can have a harder time getting grant money to add security measures to protect against active shooters. At Granger Independent School District in Williamson County, leaders say using funding for such measures means diverting scarce funding from educational needs, Steffi Lee reports for KXAN-TV in Austin. Supt. Randy Willis told Lee that rural schools are sometimes ignored when federal and state officials discuss grant options.

"I have two principals and I have two people in central administration that help me with counseling, our accountability and our testing," Willis told Lee. "So when you have to write a . . . grant application and you have to put all this stuff in to write that grant, it takes time and it takes expertise."

Rural Arkansas educators tell DOE commission that rural areas, too far from law enforcement, need armed teachers

"Proposals to arm teachers and school staff have stirred controversy since the February school shooting in Parkland, Fla., but such plans are sometimes the best options for rural schools far from first responders, state and school officials told the Federal School Safety Commission at a site visit in Arkansas on Wednesday," Elvie Blad reports for Education Week.

Lake Hamilton Schools Supt. Steve Anderson, who carries a gun at school, told the commission that sheriffs said they would be 20 to 30 minutes away during an active-shooter situation, and that the district needed someone closer to protect the students. Another superintendent told the panel of a time when, after hearing three gunshots on an elementary playground, she ran to respond as the gunman ran away. She said she felt relieved and empowered to know that she had a gun and could protect her students, Blad reports.

"The federal task force, chaired by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, has held public comment hearings, convened panels of experts, and visited schools of various sizes to hear about how they prevent and respond to school violence since it was formed in the spring. DeVos was not present at Wednesday's meeting in Pearcy, Arkansas, which was led by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions," Blad reports. "The commission heard testimony from local supporters of armed school staff, but it did not hear from any of the groups who have opposed such proposals."

Jay Barth, chair of the Arkansas Board of Education, told the commission that armed school staff shouldn't include teachers, since he said they need to concentrate on educating children, Blad reports. But hiring trained officers might not always be possible because the state already struggles to hire and retain enough officers, according to Jami Cook, director of the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training.

Idea to arm teachers hits a bump: insurance premiums

In the ongoing debate over school violence, the notion of arming teachers has been more popular than gun-control proposals in rural and conservative areas. But some insurance companies think armed teachers not only won't stop mass shootings, but will cause more accidents, and they're charging accordingly higher rates. Others are refusing to cover schools with armed teachers at all. That's why almost no teachers carry guns in the classroom in Kansas, even though they are legally allowed to do so, Todd Frankel reports for The Washington Post.

At least 10 states have laws allowing instructors to carry firearms, and 17 more have considered similar bills since the Parkland, Fla., shooting. Some of those bills failed once legislators found out how much it would cost to insure schools.

"The reaction of insurance companies is notable because they are supposed to evaluate dangers through the dry eye of actuarial science, largely avoiding the heated emotions of the nation’s gun debate, in which one side condemns guns and the other side claims, as Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) did last week, that the best way to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun," Frankel reports.

Insurers have reason to worry about increased costs: the 2017 Las Vegas shooting in which 58 concert-goers were killed could cost insurance companies more than $1 billion, according to the International Risk Management Institute. And the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, with 32 dead and 17 injured, cost insurers at least $50 million for security upgrades and lawsuit settlement costs, said Paul Marshall of McGowan Program Administrators, Frankel reports.

It's not just active shooters the insurers fear. "Reports of teachers caught bringing guns to school reinforce insurers’ concerns," Frankel reports. "In 2014, a sixth-grade teacher in Utah mistakenly shot a school toilet. No one was injured. Utah allows people with concealed-weapons permits to carry handguns on campus." Adding trained police or resource officers is more popular with insurers.

Rural students face backlash after supporting gun control

Marshall County student Hailey Case
wearing an "Enough is Enough" shirt.
(NYT photo by Andrea Morales)

Recent school shootings have inspired a wave of gun-control activism, some of it from students, and a few of those students from rural areas. "In a more liberal city like Parkland, Fla., or at a rally in Washington, these students might have been celebrated as young leaders," Jack Healy reports for The New York Times. "But in rural, conservative parts of the country where farm fields crackle with target practice and children grow up turkey hunting with their parents, the new wave of student activism clashes with bedrock support for gun rights."

Some students in Benton, Kentucky, began speaking out for gun control after the deadly January shooting at their high school. Soon afterward, friends started shunning them, locals on social media made fun of them and said they should have died during the Marshall County High School shooting, Healey reports. Debate and action in Benton has largely focused on how detect potentially dangerous students and keep schools safer instead of limiting gun rights: After the shooting, the high school hired more armed officers and locked many of the school's doors. Every morning, students are scanned with metal detector wands and have their backpacks searched. 

"Speaking out in a place like Marshall County, Ky., carries a price — measured in frayed friendships, arguments with parents and animosity within the same walls where classmates were gunned down," Healy reports.

Ten high school students from Campbell County High School in Gillette, Wyoming, faced similar backlash when they marched downtown to demand tighter gun laws in solidarity with the survivors of the Parkland, Florida, shooting. The protest was a hard sell in a state with more guns per capita than any other state and rising sales in each of the past five years. "More than 80 percent of adults in Campbell County have firearms in their homes," Eli Saslow reports for The Washington Post.

Moriah Engdahl waits to address the school board.
(Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford)

"In the days since the march, the 'Campbell County Ten' had become the object of profane graffiti, the inspiration for a rival Freedom March and the favorite target of a new Instagram account, 'Campbell County Students for America,' which shared memes comparing gun protesters to Hitler," Saslow reports. One of them is Moriah Engdahl, 16. Her father, Alan, had more than 250 guns until he lost the right to own firearms after committing a drug felony in 2006. 

Moriah's support of gun control has been a source of tension between the two, with Alan teasing her frequently, asking her if she'd managed to get everyone's guns yet. Though Moriah, a student journalist, had an independent streak, she had never questioned gun rights until the Parkland shooting. The more she researched online, though, the more she became convinced that the problem in Parkland and at home in Gillette (which has one of the nation's highest suicide rates) is unfettered access to guns. 

Moriah spoke to the school board recently in an attempt to dissuade them from arming teachers. She went alone, since the original 10 students protesting in Gillette had eroded to four: one student's furious mother pulled her daughter into the car during the protest, and in the days afterward a few students said they wanted to focus on less controversial issues like remembering victims or discouraging bullying. The remaining four included Moriah and the outspoken editor of the school newspaper, and two others. At a meeting at Starbucks to plan their next steps, one lamented that "Even my dad has started calling me a gun-control libtard," Saslow reports.