Today students were excused from classrooms all across America to participate in demonstrations in favor of firearms bans of one sort or another. These were anything but spontaneous actions organized by children. Rather, the anti-gun demonstrations were condoned, if not sponsored, by school administrations that are almost universally liberal. And the teachers’ unions played a part too. The National Education Association issued a statement that included this:

Since the horrific shootings in Parkland, Florida, students across the country have launched an inspired movement to demand long overdue action on school safety and gun control. NEA, its affiliates, and members throughout Florida and the nation, support these calls to prevent further school massacres.

Ironically, the demonstrations in favor of school safety featured, in some instances, attacks on non-conforming students. At one Minneapolis high school, two students stood apart from the throng calling for more gun control. One of them carried a sign that said “Blame the Culture, Not Guns.” The other carried a Donald Trump banner. He was cursed, pursued, knocked down and beaten up by “pro-school safety” demonstrators. School officials, who purport to be so concerned with the safety of their students, did nothing to intervene.

It is fair to say that school administrators and teachers organized children’s demonstrations on behalf of the Democratic Party. Today, the Democratic National Committee sent out an email fundraising on the students’ gun control protests:

Today at 10 a.m. students across the nation walked out of their classrooms for 17 minutes. They did it in remembrance of the 17 innocent lives that we lost at Stoneman Douglas and to call for gun legislation that will make us all safer. As a high school student, I once walked the halls and sat in the classrooms at Stoneman Douglas. … With today’s walkout, we not only honor those who were lost — we also come together with new resolve to end these tragedies once and for all. I will not allow my high school to simply become another statistic, and Stoneman Douglas students are leading the fight to ensure that it does not. Today I hope you will stand with them. Add your name to demand Congress pass common-sense gun legislation to keep us all safe from gun violence.

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Yasmine Taeb

Stoneman Douglas Alumna

DNC Member P.S. — Last week Florida’s GOP-controlled state legislature and governor signed new gun restrictions into law. But they also provided funding to help train and arm school staff members. The only way to actually make us safer from gun violence is by voting Republicans out, and in the meantime we have to put pressure on our elected representatives. Add your name to demand Congress take action on gun violence.

Beyond the contemptible enlisting of uninformed children in a political cause, today’s demonstrations were disgusting because they represented a massive passing of the buck. The demonstrations were, ostensibly, on behalf of school safety. But who is responsible for the security of our schools? The administrators who run the schools. If they believe that crazed “shooters” represent a serious threat, it is up to them to do something about it.

Sending kids out on the playground or the street with signs about gun control does absolutely nothing to make schools safer. There are, however, practical measures that administrators can take. They can secure schools the same way many thousands of office buildings are secured, with locked doors and controlled entry. There are few office buildings one can enter with a rifle under one’s arm. They can dispose of the idiotic “gun free zone” concept, which acts only as an invitation to any potential murderer. They can hire one or more armed guards. They can encourage teachers to be trained in firearms use and to obtain carry permits. These measures, unlike pointless demonstrations in favor of banning random categories of semi-automatic rifles, would actually make schools safer.

But, for whatever reason, most public schools apparently are not taking such steps. Instead, they are using silly demonstrations by ignorant children to deflect attention from their own dereliction of duty.

UPDATE: This photo, via Twitchy, illustrates how clueless today’s demonstrating kids are:

Short answer: ask your principal. But the moral is that no one should take advice from people who have no idea what they’re talking about.