In the wake of concern over school safety and political battles involving education policy, almost 6,000 delegates to the National Education Association Representative Assembly approved a new policy statement “to ensure safe, just, and equitable schools for all students,” the NEA announced Monday.
This latest approved policy statement comes “as students, educators and communities face politicians and institutions taking away freedoms and rights, brushing off a growing gun violence epidemic, and increasing restrictions on what educators can teach and what students can learn, and attempts to divide communities along race and place,” NEA said.
NEA President Becky Pringle in a statement called the policy a “north star” for the organization.
“The new policy also meets the present moment and the challenges facing our students, educators, and communities,” she said.
The policy was established at the NEA Representative Assembly in Chicago, which was held Sunday through Wednesday. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to members, denouncing gun violence and specifically acknowledging the mass shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas in May.
“Teachers should not have to practice barricading a classroom. Teachers should not have to know how to treat a gunshot wound,” Harris said. “And teachers should not be told that ‘Lives would have been saved if only you had a gun.’”
Harris said progress had been made on federal gun safety with the passage of the $13 billion Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, but there’s still more work to do. She then called for Congress to renew a ban on assault weapons.
NEA’s latest policy statement on Monday brings to nine the number of statements the 3 million-member organization has issued on topics like community schools, digital learning and charter schools.
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