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Teachers Consider Strike To Protest Gun Violence

Zach Gibson-Getty Images

WASHINGTON - The shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla. is sparking student protests nationwide - and in some areas, teachers are considering joining them, with walkouts or even an organized strike.

Although teachers' strikes are illegal in most states, the push is mounting for educators to protest on April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, unless Congress passes stricter gun-control measures.

Halley Wheeless, an educational consultant in New Mexico, says even if only one-third of the country's 3 million educators walked out, it would make a big impact. "It comes down to, let's just say, workplace safety," she states. "You don't sign up, nobody signs up to be a teacher with the idea that they're going to have to give their lives one day in the classroom. And the instinct of all teachers that I know is to protect. And that's the reality, and that's what we keep seeing, again and again."

Organizers of the Women's March are planning a national school walkout on March 14, and the survivors of the Florida shooting are planning the March for Our Lives on March 24. Advocates for gun rights say measures restricting guns infringe upon their Second Amendment right. They have also advocated to allow more firearms on campuses, though Wheeless says the idea is unpopular among educators. Last week David Berliner, an educational psychologist and professor at Arizona State University, also called on teachers to walk out on April 20 - and not come back until Congress passes gun-control measures. Berliner says the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association are among the groups drawing up model legislation.

Even though striking is illegal in most states, Berliner says teachers hold the power, much as other labor groups have in the past. "Longshoremen were forbidden to strike," he points out. "They strike. There've been miners that were forbidden to strike. They strike. "I think teachers are being too nice. Yes, they're forbidden to strike, but comes a time when, I think, they ought to close down the country." Wheeless says she actually began promoting a strike two years ago when she was a teacher, but the idea didn't gain much traction because so many of her counterparts were afraid of being fired. "There was too much fear in the air at that point," she relates. "And now, I think there's been a definite switch flipped in the United States, where people are feeling more empowered to actually voice what they feel and to walk - to actually walk out and do something about it."

A poll out from Quinnipiac University on Tuesday shows two-to-one support for stricter gun laws, with a majority of support even among gun owners.

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