The Washington Post finds that since the Columbine shooting in 1999 there have been 208,000 children exposed to gun violence in 212 schools.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

The Washington Post has spent the past year determining how many children have been exposed to gun violence during school hours since the Columbine High massacre in 1999. 

Beyond the dead and wounded, children who witness the violence or cower behind locked doors to hide from it can be profoundly traumatized. 

The federal government does not track school shootings, so The Post pieced together its numbers from news articles, open-source databases, law enforcement reports and calls to schools and police departments.

Since March, The Post has taken a closer look at states with fewer local news sources and searched more deeply for less visible public suicides and accidents that led to injury. 

The count now stands at more than 208,000 children at 212 schools. 

The Post has found that at least 131 children, educators and other people have been killed in assaults, and another 272 have been injured.

In 2018 alone, there have already been 13 shootings — the highest number at this point during any year since 1999.

The Post goes on to make the point that school shootings remain rare, and only a small percentage of school students are affected by them.

But I would counter with the fact that in most developed countries the number of school shootings are close to zero.

Which does not seem to make ours all that rare. At least not in America.

Instead I would argue that they are becoming less rare every year.

Ohio mom with conceal carry permit accidentally shoots and kills her two year old daughter.

Courtesy of Cleveland.com:

A 2-year-old girl was accidentally shot and killed by her mother at a hotel Friday night, police say. 

The shooting happened just before 11 p.m. at a hotel on Euclid Avenue, according to a post on the Wickliffe Police Department's Facebook page. 

Police received a call about a child that suffered a gunshot wound. 

The first officer who made it to the scene performed CPR on the child and paramedics took over once they arrived. The girl was pronounced dead at Lake Health West Medical Center, police said. 

A preliminary investigation indicated the mother was handling the gun when it went off and a bullet struck the girl in the chest. 

The mother was in legal possession of the gun and has a concealed carry permit, police said.

It has not yet been determined whether or not the mom will face criminal charges. 

This literally makes me so sad that I cannot come up with anything snarky to say.

But let's just remind people that having a gun in your house, or on your person, increases the likelihood that a loved one will be shot and killed 100%.

No gun = no accidental shootings.

Gun introduced = dead two year old.

Kids sue Florida Governor Rick Scott for endangering their future by not combating climate change.

Anybody else ever get the feeling that Dick Scott is a reptile? Maybe that is why climate change does not bother him.

Courtesy of the New York Post:  

A group of kids is suing Florida Gov. Rick Scott, claiming he “endangered” their future and violated their constitutional rights by not doing anything to combat climate change. 

The youngsters filed their lawsuit on Monday in Leon County Court. 

“It is the responsibility of the state to uphold the constitution, and these young people have a fundamental right to a stable climate system,” said Guy Burns, lead counsel for the eight plaintiffs, most of whom are teens.

The youths are being represented by the Oregon-based nonprofit organization Our Children’s Trust, which is supporting similar suits from children across the country. 

They range in age from 10 to 20 years old — and include climate change activists Levi Draheim and Delaney Reynolds, who expressed their outrage in a statement. 

“The reason that I’m a part of this lawsuit is because I believe that the climate change crisis is the biggest threat that my generation will ever have to face,” Reynolds explained. 

“Right now we live in what I like to call the state of denial because the state of Florida is doing nothing to address climate change, but everything to cause it. That is completely immoral,” she said. “If we ever want to have a future of living here in Florida, if my children ever want to live here in Florida, we need to start working together to implement solutions for climate change or the state of Florida won’t exist.”

Damn, these kids today are nothing short of amazing.

I think I am going to start relaxing about the future. It seems to be in pretty good hands. 

Teacher leaves gun in Pennsylvania Christian school bathroom, where it is found by students.

Courtesy of CBS News:

A teacher at a Pennsylvania Christian school accidently left her loaded pistol in a bathroom, where elementary school children found it, Pennsylvania State Police said Tuesday. 

Beth Jean Dixon, 63, put her holstered pistol on a toilet tank when she used the unisex, one-toilet bathroom Aug. 25 at Cumberland Christian School, in Chambersburg, police said. They said she forgot about it and left. 

Four children, ages 6 to 8, used the bathroom while the gun was on the toilet. One child told his parent, who told a teacher. 

Dixon informed administrators what happened and immediately resigned from the school about 55 miles southwest of Harrisburg, police said. 

No one was injured.

We talked just yesterday about a scenario where school children might find a loaded gun.

Fortunately for everybody concerned here the students were far more responsible than the teacher and and nobody was hurt.

Once again, guns do NOT keep us safe.

They introduce a deadly force into an environment which literally anybody could wield it to take a life or cause grievous bodily injury. 

The White House Easter Bunny is all of us.

“Our military is at a level where it has never been before….The funding of our military was so important and so many military people are with us here today. Just think of $700 billion because that is all going into our military this year,” @POTUS tells crowd at White House pic.twitter.com/220fJuAJgJ

— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 2, 2018

Trump also seemed to have trouble understanding what to call the White House.

”House or building or whatever you wanna call it in tip top shape. We call it tippy top shape.” It’s called the White House. Then he rambles about spending on the military & how “great” the economy is. This is the Easter egg roll. Trump’s lost his mind. pic.twitter.com/Bp82rqWbWn

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 2, 2018

(Hint: It is both the name and the description of the building.)

I do not know who is specifically in charge of choosing the costume for the White House Easter Bunny, but that whole "WTF is he saying?" expression this one wears while Trump blatantly lies about his administration's success, and stumbles around for the right word, is pure gold.

I did some checking and discovered that this is the same exact costume that the Easter Bunny wore for LAST year's White House Easter celebration.

Is anyone surprised?
Trump disappoints kids, screws up the national anthem at his first Easter egg roll https://t.co/VJaDz4aqW1

— The Blackest Heart (@TheReddestRose) April 17, 2017

See?

People are also still wondering who Trump forced to wear the costume.

Last year everybody was pretty sure it was Spicey.

Sean Spicer's humble beginnings as the White House Easter Bunny pic.twitter.com/sczyX8QJVq

— jordan (@JordanUhl) March 3, 2017

So who do we think did the honors this year?

My guess would be Eric Trump since nobody has even seen that guy in months, and he would probably do just about anything just to finally get noticed.

In perhaps the best news of the day the US Post Office honors Mr. Rogers with a stamp.

Courtesy of WLOX:

It was a beautiful day to honor Mister Rogers with a postage stamp. 

The U.S. Postal Service on Friday released a stamp featuring Fred Rogers, the gentle TV host who entertained and educated generations of preschoolers on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." 

The stamp pictures Rogers in his trademark cardigan along with King Friday, a puppet character from the show's Neighborhood of Make-Believe sketch. 

A dedication ceremony was held at the Pittsburgh studio where Rogers filmed his beloved PBS show, which aired between 1968 and 2001. Rogers died in 2003 at age 74. 

Among those attending were Rogers' widow, Joanne, and David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely, the deliveryman on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

I can hardly wait to buy my Mr. Rogers stamps so that I can send a little love and tolerance out into the world.

I have actually been thinking about Mr. Rogers quite a bit recently and often wish that he were still around to help offset so much of the hatred and intolerance that we are seeing today.

But then again just imagine how thrilled he would be with the activism of the Parkland students.

By the way for those who are missing Fred Rogers as I am, there is a new documentary about him coming out on June 8th.

Here is the trailer.

Mississippi nine year old boy shoots sister in the head when she refuse to give up video game controller.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

A 13-year-old girl has died after authorities say she was shot Saturday by her 9-year-old brother, local media reported. 

Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell said the girl would not give up a video game controller when her brother wanted it. 

Cantrell said she was shot in the back of the head, and that the bullet went through her brain. The girl was rushed to Le Bonheur's Children's Hospital in Memphis. Cantrell said late Sunday that she died of her injuries, WLOV-TV and other media reported. 

Authorities don't yet know how the child had access to the weapon they say he used to shoot his sister. 

It's also unclear how much knowledge the boy had of the dangers of guns.

Well he knew enough to point and shoot, and that is what makes guns so fucking dangerous.

This cannot be blamed on video games, or violent television shows, this happened because somebody in these children's lives did not understand the concept of gun safety and did not put this weapon in a secure location where the children could not access it.

So once again the gun that was purchased to keep people safe, ended up taking another innocent life.

Florida lawmaker mocks the Parkland school shooting survivors and says that adults make the laws because "we has the experience."

WATCH: Florida state Rep. Elizabeth Porter dismisses Florida shooting survivors calls for increased gun control.

"Do we allow the children to tell us that we should pass a law that says no homework?"https://t.co/Lrjygjriqh pic.twitter.com/iYBpePcpYG

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) March 7, 2018

Oh she is not a nice lady.

And yes you heard her right.

This woman also clearly says, "The adults make the laws because ... we has the wisdom"

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) March 7, 2018

You know the reason that the "children," as she calls them, feel the need to make their voices heard is because they have all shared an experience called "getting shot at with a semi-automatic rifle" that this nasty woman has been spared.

Now perhaps she will have yet another experience that the students have yet to endure called "getting voted out of office." 

Remember that little girl was in awe of Michelle Obama's official portrait? Yeah, well her story got even better.

This little girl was awestruck by Michelle Obama's portrait. She believes she "is a queen, and she wants to be a queen as well," her mom tells CNN https://t.co/wzGnHM2E16 pic.twitter.com/SUv6fhNo57

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 3, 2018

You may remember when I posted this on Sunday.

Well since then somebody alerted the former First Lady to this story.

You can probably predict what happened next.

Michelle Obama has now met with Parker Curry, the little fan of her portrait I wrote about on Friday https://t.co/xkpYdLc0rI pic.twitter.com/CoFle9c2DV

— David Mack (@davidmackau) March 6, 2018

Parker, I'm so glad I had the chance to meet you today (and for the dance party)! Keep on dreaming big for yourself...and maybe one day I'll proudly look up at a portrait of you! pic.twitter.com/faUVTsYWun

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) March 6, 2018

Damn, here it is so early in the morning and my damn eyes are leaking again.

Ohio 8 year old shoots 4 year old sister multiple times. The 2nd Amendment at work.

Courtesy of Mansfield News Journal:  

A mother was arrested Saturday evening after an 8-year-old boy shot his 4-year-old sister Saturday afternoon, the Ashland County Sheriff's Office reported. 

The sheriff's office was notified around 2:30 p.m. Saturday that the 4-year-old had been shot and sustained injuries that were not considered life-threatening, according to a news release from the sheriff's office. 

Ashland County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Carl Richert said the 4-year-old was shot "multiple times" and initially treated at University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center before being taken to a Cleveland hospital. 

Richert said the girl was in stable condition when she was transported. The child is currently in stable condition and is expected to recover, according to the news release. 

The Ashland County Prosecutor's Office will review the case Monday, Richert said. 

Both children have been removed from the home, he said.

Multiple times does not seem like an "accidental shooting." 

Perhaps this little boy was simply standing his ground and his little sister simply would not stop touching his things?

Or perhaps he simply lives in a house where the adults believe that guns are harmless and only a danger to the "bad guys."

Guns kill. How hard is this for people to understand?

Hey, remember when our POTUS and FLOTUS used to inspire children?

This little girl was awestruck by Michelle Obama's portrait. She believes she "is a queen, and she wants to be a queen as well," her mom tells CNN https://t.co/wzGnHM2E16 pic.twitter.com/SUv6fhNo57

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 3, 2018

Can hardly wait until we can replace Quasimodo and his ice queen with a first family that will once again do exactly that.

We almost had another mass school shooting the other day, but the young man decided only to take one life. His own.

Since Parkland, there have been two school shootings. One, a teacher had a gun. Two, a 7th grader had an assault rifle. The teacher hit no one, the 7th grader, at the last second, killed himself instead. Just FYI @Emma4Change, @davidhogg111 Words of the 7th grader below: pic.twitter.com/nRiuysiwUt

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) March 2, 2018

Courtesy of the AP: 

A seventh-grader who shot and killed himself inside an Ohio middle school restroom last week was planning to shoot others at the school before changing his mind at the last second, a police chief said Thursday. 

The boy, 13-year-old Keith Simons, came out of the bathroom holding a semi-automatic rifle just before classes began and then abruptly went back inside and shot himself in the head, said Jackson Township Police Chief Mark Brink. 

Police don’t know why Simons didn’t carry out the attack and probably never will, the police chief said. “We should thank God every day, whatever made him change his mind,” Brink said. 

Investigators found messages on his cellphone that showed the teen had been planning an attack for at least a week at Jackson Middle School, near Massillon. He also showed admiration for the two students who carried out the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado nearly 19 years ago. 

“I’d hurt and destroy something bigger but my schools an easy target,” Simons wrote in one message found on his phone. 

“I want to leave a lasting impression on the world,” he said in another message written days before he took the.22-caliber gun to school on Feb. 20. “I’m going to die doing it.” 

The messages indicating he was planning a school shooting began a week earlier, the same day that 17 people died in the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Brink said.

That tweet up above is beyond chilling, and it reminds us that these school shooters often have no expectation of surviving their attack, so the idea of having armed teachers, or even more police, on site does not indicate that it would deter any of them.

I think it is hard for any of us of a certain age to remember what it was like to be an adolescent, but since I work with them all of the time I can tell you that they experience EVERY emotion more profoundly then we do as adults.

So crushes can quickly turn to obsessions. Depressions feel like the end of the world. And anger is all encompassing.

Most of us will navigate these emotional extremes without doing anything too disruptive to our lives.

But provided access to a deadly firearm, and suddenly a momentary emotional crisis can metastasize to an explosion of violence which can end multiple lives.

I hate when people call these shooters "evil" or "crazy."

No, they were likely mentally unstable or emotionally upset. Or a combination of the two.

In other words they are treatable just so long as you do not have to navigate a hail of bullets to reach them.

Conservatives attack credibility of students who survived the school shooting in Florida. Seriously? Update!

As of this morning, the teenaged Florida mass-shooting survivors have variously been criticized as:
-Soros plants
-The biased children of FBI agents
-Too traumatized to have worthwhile opinions about an event that directly involved them https://t.co/YbZmsBGsuL

— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) February 20, 2018

Courtesy of Think Progress:

David Hogg, a senior at the school, was one of the first to appear on national television and demand action. “We’re children. You guys are the adults. You need to take some action and play a role. Work together. Come over your politics and get something done,” Hogg said, looking directly into the camera. 

Hogg is now being targeted by Gateway Pundit, a far-right blog that has press credentials from the Trump White House. A post published on Monday by the site’s White House correspondent, Lucian Wintrich, features Hogg’s photo with the word “EXPOSED” stamped in red.

Wintrich says Hogg and other students throw up some “red flags.” The first “red flag” is that Hogg’s father is a retired FBI agent. (Hogg freely admitted this on national television.) The insinuation is that Hogg’s father, who does not even work for the FBI, has tasked his son with talking about gun control to take the heat off the agency. 

Wintrich also uses an edited YouTube video of Hogg having some difficulty answering questions for a taped interview as evidence that Hogg is “heavily coached on lines and is merely reciting a script.” There is no evidence, in the video or elsewhere in the article, supporting this claim. 

Wintrich then drops all pretenses and fully embraces the conspiracy: 

Why would the child of an FBI agent be used as a pawn for anti-Trump rhetoric and anti-gun legislation? Because the FBI is only looking to curb YOUR Constitutional rights and INCREASE their power. We’ve seen similar moves by them many times over. This is just another disgusting example of it.

Is anybody else having a Sandy Hook deja vu?

Some version of this conspiracy theory has now spread across social media.

Pro-Trump media really reaching for attacks on Fla. shooting survivor David Hogg. The latest: True Pundit says Hogg going on a tour of CNN HQ, apparently years ago, is proof that he's up to something. pic.twitter.com/rMi114quJf

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) February 20, 2018

It has even been embraced by Donald Trump Jr.:

Don Jr. has liked at least two tweets pushing content that attempts to discredit one of the most vocal student survivors of the Parkland school shooting. pic.twitter.com/YI9ANh5dlL

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 20, 2018

And Hogg is not their only target.

Writer for Jim Hoft's The Gateway Pundit now saying student survivors of the Parkland school shooting are "are milking the deaths of their peers for careers" and "only care about their SJW agenda" pic.twitter.com/YAIgguU8tO

— Timothy Johnson (@timothywjohnson) February 20, 2018

Trust me when I say that I have seen the conservatives go low before, but to attack these kids, or suggest that they are "milking the deaths of their peers for careers," is so incredibly disgusting that it literally makes me sick to my stomach.

I understand the fear that the Right is feeling right now, if I saw these kids coming after me and my party I might be wetting my tighty whiteys as well, but all that attacking them accomplishes is to make them even more determined and erase ANY hope of convincing them that the conservatives and Republican party are not their enemies.

To use perhaps too apt of a metaphor the conservatives are essentially shooting themselves in the foot right now.

And while all this is going on a critically clueless conservative journalist is suggesting that the gun control debate needs to wait until people start showing respect to gun owners:

So if you want to stop school shootings it’s not enough just to vent and march. It’s necessary to let people from Red America lead the way, and to show respect to gun owners at all points. There has to be trust and respect first. Then we can strike a compromise on guns as guns, and not some sacred cross in the culture war. 

You know I have heard of "tone deaf" before, but this David Brooks guy is just "deaf deaf."

(Buzzfeed by the way has a rather expansive article on the student's grass roots activism, that essentially drives a stake through the heart of the whole "manipulated by the Left Wing" narrative.)

Update: People are starting to lose their jobs over these smear campaigns.

JUST IN: Aide to Florida GOP lawmaker fired for spreading false claim that shooting survivors are "actors" https://t.co/uY4WGB7IQX pic.twitter.com/revhfMj8aN

— The Hill (@thehill) February 21, 2018

Nice to see a little justice served. 

This is what it is like to experience a school shooting first hand.

Scariest part of it all was knowing my little brother was right above me and not knowing if I would ever see him again. I’ve never really treated him the way he deserved. Not anymore. Seeing his face outside of school was the most relief I had ever felt. My prayers to all. pic.twitter.com/Iq8CHVNXd0

— Uncle Sam Zeif (@SzZeif) February 15, 2018

I cannot even begin to tell you how hard these words hit me.

Though if you are a human being perhaps I do not have to.

We need men and women in Congress and the Senate who feel that same emotional impact after reading something like this.

Not politicians jumping through the NRA hoops, but REAL empathetic human beings who cannot sleep until they fix this terrible wrong in our country.

2018 is our year to make this country, and our world, a safer, better, and more inspiring place to live.

Texas man killed by shot to the head while teaching son gun safety. Well that there's an "F" boy.

Courtesy of News4 San Antonio: 

The Comal County Sheriff's Office says the 53-year-old man was teaching his son how to shoot on a more than 10 acre private property in Bulverde when it happened. 

Deputies say it was an accident. Many in the community are saddened by the news, but local gun expert Jaime Correa says it's not unusual for kids to learn how to handle a gun at such an early age.

Nope it is never too young to teach them young'uns about shooting people in the head.

After all isn't that how people in Texas win arguments? (And Alaska to be honest.)

When that article was written the father was still clinging to life, but he didn't cling for long.

Another white man with a history of domestic violence went on a shooting spree yesterday. Update!

 Courtesy of the LA Times:

A gunman's deadly rampage through rural Rancho Tehama on Tuesday was stopped when police rammed his vehicle and exchanged shots in a fierce gun battle, authorities said. 

"The suspect was actually shooting at the police vehicle, back at them, the officer rammed the vehicle, forced it off the road, an exchange of gunfire — resulting in the shooter's death," said Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston. 

The shooting ended what authorities described as a 45-minute attack through Rancho Tehama, a quiet reserve about 120 miles northwest of downtown Sacramento. 

The gunman at one point terrorized a local elementary school. Witnesses said he crashed through the school's gates with his truck and opened fire, spraying walls and classrooms with bullets. Teachers and other adults on campus frantically got the students under desks. 

Before the rampage was over, five people were dead, including the gunman, and at least 10 were wounded. 

It could have been much worse if local teachers had not been so quick to respond to the threat.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

No children were killed in the shooting spree that began at shortly before 8 a.m. PT in the community of Rancho Tehama Reserve, about 130 miles north of Sacramento, Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said.

The rampage could have been worse, Johnston said, had not the staff at the school heard gunshots around a quarter-mile away and initiated a lockdown.

"The shooter literally took his vehicle and rammed their fence and gate, entered the grounds on foot with a semiautomatic rifle," Johnston said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference. 

"It appears that because he couldn't make access to any of the rooms — they were locked — that he gave it up and re-entered the vehicle and then went on his killing spree and took it to the streets of Rancho Tehama,” Johnston said. "So I really want to say that the quick action of those school officials, there is no doubt in my mind based on the video that I saw, saved countless lives and children."

I say it all the time, but it bears repeating, teachers are the true American heroes. And it should not take a terrible incident like this to remind us of that fact.

As it turns out this lunatic was known by police for being a very violent offender, and was about to go on trial for past crimes: 

The gunman who killed four in a sprawling rampage Tuesday before being fatally shot by police was about to go on trial for stabbing and robbing women in his Northern California community. 

Kevin Jansen Neal, 43, was charged with assault in January. Little is known about the incident, except that Neal was charged with assault for shooting at two female neighbors through a wooden fence while they were walking. Neal then "jumped the fence, confronted the women, stabbed one and took a cellphone from the other," Tehama County District Attorney Gregg Cohen told Red Bluff Daily News. Authorities said one of the four individuals killed Tuesday was a female previously targeted by Neal in his neighborhood. 

Neal, 43, was arrested again in February for assault with a deadly weapon, battery, crimes against an elder or dependent adult and discharging his firearm with gross negligence, among other charges outlined in Red Bluff Police Department logs. Neal was scheduled to stand trial on January 11, 2018, for the assault against the neighborhood women, with trials beginning in December.

And yet he was still able to get his hands on an AR-15 Bushmaster rifle as well as several other firearms.

And why not? This is America ain't it?

Investigators later found the body of Neal's wife hidden under the floorboards in his house, which brings the death toll up to five. 

Update: Totally agree with this.

As we approach the five-year anniversary of the horrifying shooting at Sandy Hook, it’s heartbreaking that we’ve made so little progress in preventing these shootings. Elementary schools like the one in Rancho Tehama Reserve shouldn’t have to prepare for mass shootings.

— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) November 16, 2017

The Satanic Temple masterfully trolls Christians in Texas.

Courtesy of Dead State:   

The Satanic Temple is known for their masterful trolling of Christians. This time they’re going after “sadists” in Three Rivers, Texas. Why? Because last summer, the city’s public school district voted to allow paddling as a form of punishment for children. 

Now Temple spokesman Lucien Greaves says that school administrators who think hitting kids is okay need to be replaced, and that sentiment was reflected in a billboard put up by the Temple in Three Rivers. 

The billboard reads: “Our Religion Doesn’t Believe in Hitting Children.” 

“Hopefully, our billboard will give pause to passersby who will be forced to confront the fact that the school district is being operated by depraved and ignorant sadists who have no business being in education,” Greaves said, according to Patheos. “The billboard should be a wakeup call that the school district trustees, who voted 6 – 0 for corporal punishment, need to be replaced by competent and humane members of the community who have children’s best interests at heart.”

One of the Satanic Temple's tenets is that no one is allowed to cause bodily harm to another, which would already make them morally superior to fundamentalist Christians. 

Donald Trump shows bunch of Trick or Treaters what scary really looks like.

WATCH: Pres. Trump talks with the children of reporters during a Halloween event in the Oval Office on Friday. https://t.co/3jaFD2cFLM

— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) October 27, 2017

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

President Donald Trump briefly met with children of the White House press corps on Friday as part of a Halloween celebration, and things got weird pretty quickly. 

The costumed kids were invited to the Oval Office before trick-or-treating in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Trump, ever eager to criticize the press, seized the opportunity to make fun of their parents. 

“I cannot believe the media produced such beautiful children,” Trump said, according to a pool report of the event. “How the media did this, I don’t know.”

I swear everything this guy does is creepy.

Personally I would not let my kids anywhere NEAR this pussy grabbing asshole. 

What a difference a year makes.

School teachers report from the front lines about what they are seeing in Trump's America.

Courtesy of NPR: 

Previous surveys we've reported on, including one from the Southern Poverty Law Center, also found increases in school bullying related to overheated political rhetoric. 

The UCLA survey, unlike those, relies on a nationally representative sample: 1,535 teachers at schools whose demographics reflect those of U.S. schools as a whole, rather than pulling from self-selecting volunteers. Also, the survey was conducted after President Trump took office. Along with the survey, researchers at the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education and Access conducted 35 follow-up interviews by phone. 

Here are some of the key findings: 

• 79 percent of teachers reported that students have expressed concerns for their well-being or the well-being of their families because of what is in the news. Most commonly mentioned was immigration, but the list also included the much-publicized travel ban, restrictions on LGBTQ rights, threats to the Affordable Care Act and threats to the environment. 
• 51 percent of teachers reported more students experiencing "high levels of stress and anxiety." 
• 44 percent of teachers reported that students' concerns were affecting learning. In interviews, they spoke about students who seemed stressed, distracted and who were contributing less to class discussion for fear of drawing attention to themselves. 
• 41 percent of teachers reported that students were more likely than in previous years to introduce unfounded claims in class discussions, such as from Facebook or talk radio. 
• 27 percent of teachers reported an increase in students making derogatory remarks about other groups during class discussions. This included sexist as well as racist and anti-Muslim comments. 
• 20 percent of teachers reported heightened polarization on campus and incivility in their classrooms. 

These last two figures were higher for teachers at predominantly white schools, says John Rogers, lead author of the report and a professor at UCLA's graduate school of education. He noted that teachers in eight states used the word "emboldened" to describe some white students' increasingly racist and offensive behavior. 

The report is not comprehensive, and there's no easy way to compare its results with those during any previous administration. But it speaks to an ongoing national discussion about civil discourse and civic engagement inside and outside the classroom.

When I say in the headline that teachers are on the "front line" I mean that literally as they are often the ones who first recognize shifts in how young people respond to the mood of a country, or how attitudes are evolving concerning racism, sexism, or tolerance of "the other."

During the Obama Administration it seemed that the country was moving rapidly toward more progressive attitudes, hope for the future, and acceptance of others.

But now with Trump in the White House it appears that we returned to intolerance and divisiveness almost overnight.

Philadelphia six year old shoots three year old brother after being left home alone without adult supervision.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail: 

Police in Philadelphia say a 3-year-old is in critical condition after being shot in the head by his 6-year-old brother. 

Authorities say the younger boy suffered a gunshot wound to the left side of his forehead just after 3pm Saturday at the home on the 3600 block of North 18th Street. 

Three boys - aged three, six and 12 - were on the second floor of their north Philadelphia home, alone, when the shooting happened. 

The six-year-old grabbed the gun and began shooting, hitting his little brother on the left side of his forehead, according to police.

Another careless shooting in the NRA's America.

At least this time the father was charged:  

The father of two young boys has been charged after police say one of his sons shot the other inside their Tioga-Nicetown home. 

Action News has learned the father, identified as 36-year-old male Sirhaven Williams, has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child, even though, police said the gun belonged to the children's uncle who lived at the home.

Of course he's black which might help to explain why the cops are holding him accountable.

If it had been a white father I am sure they would have simply seen it as an unavoidable accident.

When will people finally understand that guns kill, that is their only purpose.

And having one in the house does not protect anybody, instead it puts every member of the household in danger.