Black Lives Mattering and the Abington School District

Just in time for Black History Month...sheesh!!

Recently, Dr. Tamar Klaiman, a school board member with the Abington School District (PA), voiced her concerns with having armed school resource officers in Abington’s schools.

“This may not be the appropriate venue or time to talk about this, but there’s a lot of evidence that anybody carrying a firearm in a district building puts kids at risk, particularly students of color. We know that Black and Brown are much more likely to be shot by police officers, especially school resource officers than other students and I have serious concerns about anybody in the buildings having firearms regardless of whether or not they’re police.” The backlash was swift, as many did not appreciate these and other comments from Dr. Klaiman. She would later apologize. More than once. Many are calling for her resignation. Shocker. (pshh)



I don't know that a blog post or tweets are sufficient enough for me express my....[searching for the word, settles on...] disgust with the backlash. Surprised? Nope. Disgusted. Yup! Maybe perturbed or incensed would work, as well!

While 2015 data from the U.S. Department of Education for Abington do not include information on Black students shot in school by police, it does include discipline information which should alarm us when discussing armed police in schools. I'll leave this here for your perusal and for you to contemplate if it wasn't at all too far fetched for Dr. Klaiman to broach the issue. For the record, Doc, a school board meeting is the EXACT and appropriate place and time to talk about this!