Video: KRIV 26 News
Ericka Mellon, Houston Chronicle
An elementary school and a preschool in Houston ISD have canceled gun-safety presentations for their young students over concerns that the National Rifle Association crafted the lessons.
A spokesman for the Houston Independent School District said Tuesday that the principals of Peck Elementary and the Martin Luther King Early Childhood Center did not know the NRA was behind the program.
“The principals made a decision they didn’t want to participate in an event that folks could perceive as them taking a position one way or another on the gun control debate or any other debate the NRA is involved in,” HISD spokesman Jason Spencer said.
The NRA sent out a news release touting its safety presentations at the two schools, which were scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, in advance of the gun group’s annual meeting in Houston. NRA officials did not respond to comment about HISD’s last-minute cancellations.
The group’s release said nearly 3 million school children in Texas have heard the gun-safety presentation over the last 25 years. The program, according to the NRA, typically involves its Eddie the Eagle mascot in costume, delivering this message to kids who may come across guns: “Stop! Don’t touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult.”
The NRA has been in the spotlight in recent months as U.S. lawmakers debate gun-control measures – which so far have been defeated – following the December shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that left 20 students and six employees dead.
HISD’s Spencer said the principals of Peck and MLK knew only that the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Police Department was involved with the gun-safety lessons. …
(Read more of this story at Chron.com)
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