MA Teachers Stand In Solidarity With Uvalde, Texas In 'Day Of Rage'

MASSACHUSETTS — Teachers across the state gathered outside their schools Wednesday morning for a "Day of Mourning, Rage and Action" to call for an end to gun violence.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) planned the event in response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 elementary school students and two teachers were killed.

"Who better to speak up?" Milton Educators Association member Zakia Jarrett said at a statewide meeting shortly after the tragedy. "We are the people expected to protect our students with our classroom materials and even our own bodies. We must demand better for the children and for ourselves."

MTA President Merrie Najimy joined a crowd of teachers, students and community members outside Milton High School Wednesday morning, while groups at schools across the state gathered for their own events. Najimy told Patch that while she didn't know the exact number of participants, she listed at least 10 schools from Springfield to Arlington that took part in the Day of Mourning, Rage and Action.

Teachers in Barnstable laid flowers in front of the elementary school and set up 22 empty chairs outside the high school and middle school to honor the 22 victims — including the husband of one of the teachers, who died of a heart attack days after the shooting.

Framingham teachers held signs displaying the name of each victim and messages like "Ni uno más" — "not one more" in Spanish.

Teachers at Salem High School wore black T-shirts and stood outside the school respectfully for 10 minutes at the start of the school day before walking into the building together. Salem Teachers Union 1258 said students were invited to stand with the teachers and that the walk-in was not meant to be a protest against the management of Salem Public Schools.

Canton High School teachers also staged a "walk-in" and donned orange ribbons, a symbol of support in the fight to end gun violence.

The events Wednesday were part of a push by the MTA to give schools back to their communities, MTA President Najimy told Patch. Public schools should be spaces of "joyful learning," she said, but instead they've become "fortresses" with their locked doors and metal detectors.

"There's no excuse that can justify these deaths," Najimy said. "It's time for our federal government to take real action."

MTA members plan to take part in the second nationwide March For Our Lives rally June 11 with a local march in Boston. At least 300 marches are set in communities across the country to demand bold action against gun violence.

Millions of people gathered for the first March For Our Lives, following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, making it the largest single day of protest against gun violence in history, according to the March For Our Lives site.