I was at the Tuesday (Aug. 8) District 97 school board meeting and learned that our local Moms Demand Action group has been asking the board to share information about safe firearm storage with D97 parents and families for two entire school years.
Read that again: Oak Park’s school board has been unwilling to let parents know how to securely store a gun in their home.
This is critical since the U.S. Secret Service’s 2019 “Protecting America’s Schools” study found that in incidents of school violence, 75-80% of school shooters acquired their firearm from the home of a parent or close relative.
Oak Park is better than this. This school board needs to find a way to send home a simple safety message that could prevent a horrible tragedy, period.
Eric Bryning
Sixth-grade teacher and Oak Park parent
