Donald Trump has five children by three different women. Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka, and Eric are adults. Tiffany was raised far from her father, in California, and is in college. The youngest, Barron, is off-limits, as all underage president’s children should be, but his school is making some surprising presidential news.
First Lady Melania Trump may be looking for another place to send her child, because St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland is protesting. It is one of over 100 schools located in the Greater Washington and Maryland metropolitan area.
Students everywhere have been alarmed by the mass shooting in Parkland FL, where 14 students and three faculty died horrid deaths from bullets fired by a former student using a semi-automatic rifle. The man walked into the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with an AK-15 and mowed them down, leaving another 14 with life-altering injuries.
As a result, the survivors rose up and are leading the effort to change government. If the adults in Congress will not protect them from literally being hunted, they will fire them.
These remarkable young people talked to the media with amazing poise, visited members of Congress — where Capitol police arrested some of them, and inspired rallies across the nation.
The president’s son’s school was no different. It has written an open letter that requested Trump and Congress do more. The letter called upon them to:
‘Tackle the epidemic of gun violence and to prevent the arming of teachers with firearms.’
The Baltimore Sun published the letter, signed by St. Andrew’s Episcopal School head Robert Kosasky, which read:
‘We urge our president, our Congress, and our state leaders to enact specific, rigorous measures to reduce gun violence in our society, particularly in our schools.’
‘We need a robust system of registration and background checks, with a particular eye toward weapons capable of rapidly firing a vast number of deadly shots. We need stronger mental health services and more effective communication among agencies responsible for the well-being of children, adults and families. What we do not need is to arm our teachers with guns, which is dangerous and antithetical to our profession as educators.’
Tens of thousands of students walked out of their schools in the first nationwide protest, carrying signs, chanting, and marching down the streets of America.
Trump had waffled about gun control. He invited the survivors of the Florida massacre and other mass shootings, including Sandy Hook where six- and seven-year-old children were slaughtered with a weapon of war to speak with him.
At times, the commander-in-chief appeared willing to push for expanded background checks and raise the minimum age to purchase automatic rifles from 18 to 21. He also seemed to support bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic guns to fire almost as rapidly as automatic weapons.
Before the victims had all been buried, the National Rifle Association (NRA) began fighting back.
The powerful lobbyist organization took Trump to dinner and reminded the president of its $30 million donation to his presidential campaign. Then, he pulled back.
Now, the president wants to arm teachers to take out killers with automatic weapons, which is absurd. That is no equal match. A teacher who was also a part-time police officer accidentally discharged his weapon in the classroom since the Florida massacre and bullet fragments hit one student in the neck. The injury was non-life-threatening.
Featured Image via Getty Images/Alex Wong.
