De Blasio: NYC schools developing lesson plans tied to gun walkout
Mayor Bill de Blasio giving the 2018 State of the City address on Feb. 22, 2018. Credit: Jeff Bachner
Lesson plans are being drawn up for New York City’s public schools, a “teachable moment” to complement next month’s planned student walkout over the nation’s gun laws, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday.
De Blasio, who has said he’d join the protest if he were a student, promised that the curriculum would be apolitical.
“I certainly wouldn’t want any individual’s viewpoint leading the discussion — my own included,” de Blasio, a Democrat, said on his weekly WNYC radio call-in. “But I think it is an important moment for young people to debate and to reflect and to think about the world.”
The walkout, planned to last 17 minutes beginning at 10 a.m. on March 14, comes in response to the killing of 17 students and faculty Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, allegedly by a heavily armed former student.
“We’re gonna do lesson plans around this issue leading up to that day. We’re gonna make sure that there’s a real educational impact,” de Blasio said.
Mayoral spokeswoman Olivia Lapeyrolerie said later Friday that the special curriculum would center on how students can get involved in civics and discuss current events like the shooting. She said no one educator is overseeing the lesson-plan writing but it’s being done by several units in the city’s education bureaucracy and would be implemented by principals.
De Blasio’s administration has also ordered all 1,800 schools to hold active shooter drills by March 15 on how to lock down buildings in case a shooter is on the loose. Thursday’s drill announcement came a day ahead of a proposal outlined by Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott Friday that includes mandatory active shooter training for all schools in the state by the end of the first week of each semester, according to The Associated Press.
During a White House meeting with state and local officials Thursday, President Donald Trump said active shooter drills “are a very negative thing” and he prefers a “hardened school.” Since the Florida massacre, Trump has pushed for tighter school security while floating the idea of arming teachers.
When he announced the city school system’s plan for the drills Thursday, De Blasio also said he has “respect” for the walkout plans. The city’s Department of Education said no student would be punished for participating. The school system will allow elementary- and middle-school students to participate in the protest “within the context of the building,” instead of going outside.
“This is a teachable moment,” de Blasio said, “on top of the moment for potentially profound social change.”
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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