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Parkland Student Talks to Betsy DeVos About Preventing Future Shootings – Calls Her Response ‘BS’

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‘Your Answer Was Unacceptable, It Was Not Informative and Honestly, BS.’ Says Parkland Student Who Directly Asked DeVos About Shootings

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visited the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Wednesday morning for about an hour, over the opposition of at least some of the student survivors of the February 14 massacre. 

Students were not pleased when informed at the last minute of DeVos’ trip. By the time she left some were furious, calling the short visit a “publicity” stunt.

Contrary to what many might expect, DeVos did not meet with the entire school body. She did not sit down with even a handful of student leaders to hear their thoughts on guns, gun violence, arming teachers Stoneman Douglas High School which DeVos supports. 

Instead, as one student tweeted, the Education Secretary “talked to three people, and pet a dog.” The dog refers to helper animals the school has brought in to support the students.

DeVos has a history of negative visits to schools, with some opponents – including teachers – publicly protesting her.

On Wednesday she banned the media from the school, instead choosing to hold an 8-minute press event after her 60-90 minute tour of the Parkland high school.

One group of reporters DeVos could not ban: the student reporters from the school’s newspaper.

“She wasn’t informative or helpful at all. It’s nice that she came to give us condolences, but we are so done with thoughts and prayers. We want action,” senior Kyra Parrow told The Eagle Eye. “She didn’t come to inform us or talk about how we are going to fix this issue; she just came to say that she came. That disappoints me.”

Parrow was one of the few students who were allowed to talk with DeVos. 

The Eagle Eye reports that Parrow “asked DeVos about her agenda to prevent further school shootings.”

DeVos “answered that her agenda was ‘to ensure that the students of our country are able to pursue their learning in a safe environment. I am going to make sure that we bring forward solutions that communities can put in place that will be appropriate for their surroundings and will ensure that they can care for their students.'”

DeVos later posted this tweet:

Parrow, who goes by Kyra on Twitter, responded:

Note the very careful word choices DeVos made in her remarks to the students quoted in The Eagle Eye.

The Secretary of Education makes clear she will not mandate any policies for any school, she will merely “bring forward solutions that communities can put in place,” and those “solutions” will be “appropriate for their surroundings.” Presumably, if the state opposes gun control, DeVos will make it easier for there to be armed teachers in the schools. 

DeVos literally offered nothing of substance, nothing practical, exactly zero solutions.

The Parkland students are far smarter than DeVos thinks.

Hat tip: The Hill

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BREAKING NEWS

Trump Indictment Is a Massive 34 Counts: CNN

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9 hours ago

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March 30, 2023

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When he appears in New York next week, Donald Trump will face a 34-count indictment.

CNN’s John Miller on-air Thursday evening announced, “I am told by my sources that this is 34 counts of falsification of business records, which is probably a lot of charges involving each document, each thing that was submitted, as a separate count.”

Attorney Tristan Snell, who assisted in the successful prosecution of the Trump University case for the New York Attorney General’s Office, responded via Twitter:

“This is WAY more than expected. If this is correct, it could mean that the indictment covers FAR more than the Stormy Daniels hush money — like Karen McDougal hush money or other hush money/catch-and-kill cases.”

READ MORE: Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Says It Is Coordinating With Trump to ‘Surrender’

“My hunch for a while,” Snell adds, “given [David] Pecker’s involvement and the drawn-out timetable of the indictment, plus the TWENTY interviews of Michael Cohen with the DA, showed that something far larger than Stormy might be in the works.”

“May still be wrong, of course. But 34 counts is a LOT!”

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News

Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Says It Is Coordinating With Trump to ‘Surrender’

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10 hours ago

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March 30, 2023

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Donald Trump’s attorneys were notified Thursday afternoon a Manhattan grand jury had voted to indict him on felony charges related to his alleged hush money payoff of a porn star he reported slept with.

The ex-president’ attorney recently said if indicted Trump would travel to New York to turn himself in.

The Office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has just issued a strongly-worded statement saying it is “coordinating” with Trump’s attorneys for his “surrender.”

“This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal. Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected,” the statement reads.

READ MORE: ‘You Can’t Stand on Fifth Avenue and Just Shoot Somebody’: Donald Trump Indicted – Legal Experts Respond

The Daily Beast’s Jose Pagliery posted the statement to Twitter.

NBC News explains the process, noting he is expected to be arraigned next week.

“After the indictment, Trump will be arrested and taken into custody. He will likely have a mug shot and fingerprints taken,” NBC reports. “Trump will then appear in court to be arraigned, where he will hear charges and enter a plea. Two sources familiar with the situation told NBC News that the former president is likely to be arraigned next week. Trump will either be jailed or released while pre-trial hearings take place.”

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'INDICTED FOR HIS BEHAVIOR'

‘You Can’t Stand on Fifth Avenue and Just Shoot Somebody’: Donald Trump Indicted – Legal Experts Respond

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10 hours ago

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March 30, 2023

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Just past 5:00 PM ET The New York Times broke the news that Donald Trump, the ex-president, had been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on felony charges.

It is a historic moment.

Legal experts are weighing in to help guide Americans through an event that has never before happened in this country.

Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman says the fact that this is the first time in U.S. history a president is facing criminal charges is itself a problem.

“I think it would have not been a novel event,” Ackerman said on MSNBC, “if we had done this 49 years ago with Richard Nixon, and he had not been pardoned, this will not be a big event [that] it is today.”

READ MORE: New Poll Sends Trump Damning Message About 2024 if He’s Criminally Indicted

“Everybody should be held accountable,” Ackerman added, citing former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s earlier remarks. Cohen testified repeatedly before the Manhattan grand jury that indicted Trump late Thursday afternoon after a three-hour session.

Ackerman lamented that despite over 30 people being indicted during Watergate, “Richard Nixon was pardoned, he wasn’t held accountable.”

“I think this is very important,” Ackerman continued, “establishing a principle, a line in the sand, that even if you’re the President of the United States, and you commit a crime, you can’t stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and just shoot somebody.”

Ackerman was referring to Trump’s infamous comments during the 2016 election, when he bragged he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

Attorney and civil rights activist Maya Wiley, also on MSNBC, said, “It’s important and sobering that we had somebody who had the highest office of this country who has now ben indicted for his behavior, his acts, in order to win that office, but also faces what are more shoes that will drop, I believe.”

“It is a sobering moment for this country, that we are witnessing this happened to somebody who was entrusted with such power who has now had a jury of his peers, because that is what a grand jury also is, say we believe he had to face the music.”

READ MORE: Here’s How Five Republicans in Congress Are Responding to the Mass Shooting of 3 Children and 3 Adults in Nashville (Video)

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, now a professor of law, called this a “moment where we would do well to seriously assess who we are as Americans and who we are not as Americans, because we re all so familiar with Donald Trump’s tactics.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

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