Reply to TW: Risk of gun violence in public vs. private schools

Forum Index » MD Public Schools other than MCPS

Reply to "TW: Risk of gun violence in public vs. private schools "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Hi, parents.  Trigger Warning here.

I really want to send my children to public school.  I can get over the large (and burgeoning) class sizes in Montgomery County, the high student teacher ratios (in our school line-up, at least), the very high school classes. I want them to be exposed to a true diversity of opinions, economic strata, races, and religions.  To have lots of children to choose from / build friendships with at each phase of their school experiences.  I also really want to build community with our neighbors, and public school helps with that.

What I'm having the hardest time with: Guns and the trauma of gun-related lockdowns/secure status. Statistically, sending a child to public school raises the chance they'll be killed - or at least have experienced - an on-campus school shooting by 18-20x vs. sending them to a private school.   My source?  Washington Post and CATO Institute survey data from around 2022/2023 (can't remember the exact date).

How do other parents who can afford to send their kids to privates rationalize sending your kids to public in light of this?  
What decision did you make ultimately?

To front-run the potential respondents who say "The risk of gun violence is everywhere, so you're never fully protected," let me respond: Yes, of course. There is a risk of shootings and lockdowns at all school types (with the recent Annunciata shooting in Minnesota, as a recent private example).  But, let's please move beyond this and acknowledge the statistical reality that the national and even local (just read Bethesda Today in the last 12 months) context show this is much more common in public schools.

Thank you in advance for your constructive feedback.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics