Local activists from Moms Demand Action gun control group have moved on to Oak Park and River Forest High School urging the school to send out information to parents about safe gun storage.
A few weeks after appearing at an Oak Park Elementary District 97 school board meeting to urge District 97 to send parents information about safe gun storage, Oak Park resident Jenna Leving Jacobson delivered the same message to the OPRF in a public comment she made at the Sept. 21 meeting of the OPRF school board.
Jacobson said that schools sending out information about safe gun storage can save lives.
“We need to make sure that youth in our community do not have unsupervised access to firearms,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson wants school districts to take advantage of a new state law that permits them to provide safety information including information about safe gun storage.
“Educating adults about firearm storage is important,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson cited a CDC study that showed that 20% of high school students seriously considered suicide within last year and that suicide attempts with a gun are much more lethal than suicide attempts by other means.
“Most people who attempt suicide do not die unless they use a gun,” Jacobsen said. “In fact 90% of suicide attempts with a gun result in death which is a much higher fatality rate than any other form of self-harm.”
Jacobson said that 41% of child suicides involve a gun.
“The difference between whether a kid survives a difficult time may be determined by whether or not they have access to firearms,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson said that guns in a house should be stored locked and unloaded and separate from ammunition. This would also prevent accidental shootings, she said.
Jacobson cited a Secret Service survey that showed 76% of school shooters obtained guns from home.
“Gun violence is a public health crisis that should be addressed by our schools,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson said that nearly 2,100 kids under 18 are killed by guns every year.
OPRF school board president Tom Cofsky said after the meeting that he was not sure that OPRF should tell people what to do inside their home saying that seems to be a village responsibility.
But Jacobson and other Moms Demand Action activists say that schools have an obligation to help get out the message about safe gun storage.
“More than 10 million students nationwide now attend a school that provides secure storage notification but sadly none of those students go to OPRF,” Jacobson said. “D200 parents and families should receive information about secure firearm storage prior to the required lockdown drill and reference to suicide awareness month in September and anytime there is context for this reminder. This information should also be required reading in registration materials for the 24-25 school year just like other health and safety policies.”
Jacobson said that the stakes are high.
“If we can prevent even one death from firearm injury it is our responsibility to do so,” Jacobson said.
