Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made a morning visit to the site of the Florida school shooting, where she hastily walked out a press conference and got slammed by students online for failing to meet with them.
DeVos visited Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School three weeks after the shootings that killed 17 there.
She laid a wreath outside the fence of the building, in a tightly-scripted appearance that had her accompanied by a trio of students from the school paper, a broadcast student, and one from the school yearbook.
Near the end of her press availability, she called for elevating ideas that are ‘done well.’
‘Like what?’ asked a reporter. ‘Any specific things?’ asked another.
‘Thank you, press,’ said an aide off camera, shortly before DeVos walked away. ‘Five questions, that’s it?’ said a reporter as she avoided a follow-up about arming teachers.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks to the news during a press conference held at the Heron Bay Marriott about her visit to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on March 7, 2018 in Coral Springs, Florida. She ended the brief press conference, and was criticized by students for failing to meet with them
Students motivated by the ‘#NeverAgain’ movement blasted her for not making herself available to take their questions – and she abruptly ended a brief press conference after 10 minutes.
She defended President Trump’s call to arm teachers, but quickly walked away from the podium when pressed about it, the New York Daily News reported.
‘I think to say ‘arming teachers’ is oversimplification and a mischaracterization really,’ DeVos said.
‘I think that the concept is to, for those schools and those communities that opt to do this … to have people who are expert in being able to defend and having lots and lots of training to do so,’ she added, CNN reported.
She added: ‘I think that’s a model that can be adopted and should be an option for schools, for states, for communities,’ DeVos said. Then she added: ‘But it’s certainly not one that needs to be required or mandated for every community.’
Trump in the days after the Feb. 14 shooting Trump called for arming up to 20 per cent of teachers, saying they would get training and some of the armed teachers could be former Marines and other ex-military.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks to the news during a press conference held at the Heron Bay Marriott about her visit to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on March 7, 2018 in Coral Springs, Florida
DeVos placed a wreath on a fence at the school and was trailed by three students, but failed to meet with those calling for gun control and other responses
DeVos didn’t take questions from students who organized a national movement calling for regulation of assault weapons and other issues.
Student Carly Novell, an editor for the school paper who survived the shooting, wrote on Twitter: ‘I thought she would at least give us her ‘thoughts and prayers,’ but she refused to even meet/speak with students. I don’t understand the point of her being here.’
DeVos explained: ‘I told the newspaper reporters that I would love to come back in an appropriate amount of time and just sit down and talk with them.’
Another student, Kyra Parrow, tweeted: ‘Secretary of education Betsy Devos spoke to me and only a hand full of students. She did not properly answer my only question. She did not sit down with any students and asked what we wanted. Douglas has 3,000 students. None of them were invited.’
Another student, Emma Gonzalez, who is promoting the March For Our Lives march, wrote mockingly on advance news of the visit: ‘Good thing I was already planning on sleeping in tomorrow.’