EDUCATION/GUNS/OBAMA ADMIN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “After a gunman marauded through Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month, conservative commentators — looking for a culprit — seized on an unlikely target: an Obama-era guidance document that sought to rein in the suspensions and expulsions of minority students.
Black students have never been the culprits in the mass shootings that have shocked the nation’s conscience nor have minority schools been the targets. But the argument went that any relaxation of disciplinary efforts could let a killer slip through the cracks.
And this week, President Trump made the connection, announcing that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will lead a school safety commission charged in part with examining the ‘repeal of the Obama administration’s *Rethink School Discipline* policies.’…
The issue of the discipline guidance was raised formally by Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, who, after seeing a flurry of conservative news media reports, wrote a letter to Ms. DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions questioning whether the guidance allowed the shooting suspect, Nikolas Cruz, to evade law enforcement and carry out the massacre at Stoneman Douglas High.”
-Erica L. Green, “Trump Finds Unlikely Culprit in School Shootings: Obama Discipline Policies,” The New York Times online, Mar. 13, 2018