Last academic year, Albuquerque saw two deadly school shootings. In other districts, officials recovered guns brought into schools. These tend to grab headlines, but what’s often left out is how gun violence outside of schools affects students.
Miranda Viscoli, Co-President of New Mexicans To Prevent Gun Violence, said many youth have lost someone to gun violence.
"We have no funding to even get these kids the counseling they need. So that’s where an office of gun violence prevention would actually really help us get into the schools and find ways to implement restorative justice programs and get more counseling into our schools. So that We can help these students" said Viscoli.
Viscoli’s group will push for the creation of this office in the next legislative session that starts in January. She is urging school boards to get loud in the legislature and not make school gun violence prevention an education issue that’s separate from politics.
"It gets political when kids are being killed. It gets political when our students are afraid of going to school. We aren’t taking care of our youth" Viscoli said.
This coverage made possible by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and KUNM listeners.