RE: Let me tell you my story

It changed my life. {NAME}, We wanted to make sure you saw Melissa's email below. By adding your name, you pledge to support candidates who will enact laws to keep our schools and communities safe from gun violence. [Will be a Safe Schools, Safe Communities Voter?]( As Melissa says, change is possible—but only if we elect the right people to office. In solidarity, The NEA EdAction Team   To: {EMAIL} From: Melissa Gibbons Date: Saturday, January 27 at 1:04 p.m. [National Education Association](   [EdAction logo]( Hi {NAME}, I’ll never forget it. I was out doing hall duty in my high school. It was a crisp November day. The students were all buzzing. It was that time between Thanksgiving and Christmas with so much excitement and anticipation in the air. That’s when I heard it. Loud pops, one right after the other. Gun shots. My life was forever changed in that moment. I knew I had to do anything I could to stop it from happening again. The reality is my story could be any of our stories. And that’s why we need leaders who are serious about preventing gun violence. This is an election year, {NAME} , and this is our chance to elect candidates who will act to keep our students and educators safe. [Please join me and pledge to be a safe schools, safe communities voter.]( [Sign the Pledge ➤]( When I heard those gunshots, I sprang to action. I rushed what students I could into my classroom. I got them into the corner and barricaded desks around them. I put the Nightlock on the door. Then it dawned on me: my twin daughters were also in the building. I later learned that they were both in one of the classrooms that received gunfire. It wasn’t until later that night that I broke down. We were safe. Four students, however, were not. They lost their lives that day. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about them and the impact they would have had on the world. Another six students and a teacher were injured. All of us, including my girls, live with the trauma of that day. It took a while for me to process what happened that November day in Oxford. And then, after 19 students and 2 teachers lost their lives in the Uvalde shooting, I knew I had to speak up. We had to do something to stop this horrible epidemic of gun violence in our schools and communities. Two years ago, President Biden led a bipartisan majority of Congress to pass the first major gun violence legislation at the federal level in nearly 30 years. It’s a start, but we all know it’s not enough. That’s why I worked with other educators and parents in my state, Michigan, to elect a legislature and a governor who would act. And you know what? Last year, they delivered. They passed universal background checks, storage requirements, and a law to keep guns temporarily out of the hands of dangerous people with a court order. Michigan is proof that change is possible, if we elect the right people to office. [Pledge to be a safe schools, safe communities voter, and together we’ll put in office the elected officials who will help prevent gun violence.]( Every student, every educator deserves to be safe when they go to school, the grocery store, and their place of worship. We need to make our schools and our communities safe. We need to prevent gun violence. We can do it, together. [Black and white image of Melissa Gibbons staring into the distance] In solidarity, Melissa Gibbons Teacher and NEA member Oxford, Michigan [Sign the Pledge ➤](   [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( © 2023 NEA 1201 16th Street NW Washington, DC 20036 United States   This email was sent to: {EMAIL}   You are signed up for NEA EdAction, online and in‑person actions to build great public schools for every student.   To stop receiving emails, please [unsubscribe]( or [manage your email subscriptions](.   [Privacy Policy]( | [Terms and Conditions](   [Unsubscribe]( [Manage Subscriptions]( [NEA Action Center](