Pasadena School Board Holds Moment of Silence for Victims of Mass Shooting at Texas School, Vows to Do What it Can to Curb Gun Violence

The Pasadena Unified School District Board held a moment of silence to honor the 19 children and the two teachers who were killed during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas last Tuesday.

“I want to begin our meeting with a remembrance of the loss of the children in Texas and our own sense of commitment to keeping our children safe and to keeping this issue in our forefront as we go forward with committee meetings and other matters,” said PUSD Board President Elizabeth Pomeroy when she opened Thursday evening’s scheduled meeting.

Pomeroy said the PUSD board is doing what it can to address the issue of gun violence at the local level.

Without elaborating, she said: “We are already thinking and talking about that.”

At the meeting, Jane Gould from Moms Demand Action, a grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence, called for imposition of new storage standards for firearms to ensure students will not have access to guns.

According to Gould, safe firearm storage can prevent unintentional deaths and suicide. It is also one way to keep the schools safer.

“Unsecured firearms are often used in school gun violence and the majority of shooters on school grounds under the age of 18, up to 80 %, obtained the guns they use from their homes or the homes of relatives and friends. The same is true for children who commit suicide using a gun,” said Gould.

“So one of the possible solutions to this and it is an effective one, is to make sure that people secure guns at home,” she added.

Citing the U.S. Secret Service, Gould said addressing student access to guns is a critical component of any school-based threat assessment intervention plan.

Earlier this week, PUSD Superintendent Brian McDonald renewed calls for tougher gun control laws amid the recent mass shooting.

“It’s time for clear action by lawmakers across the country to do whatever it takes to change our laws and provide the necessary resources to ensure that something like this never happens again. It’s time to keep our children and families safe, whether they’re shopping in Buffalo, attending church in Laguna Woods, or tragically, sitting in their classrooms anticipating the end of the school year and the start of what should have been a glorious summer,” McDonald said in a statement.

In the same statement, McDonald assured the community that “every single person in Pasadena Unified School District is committed to the safety of our students and schools.”