After the death of a star student last spring, Florida high school teacher Paul Moore got to thinking about accountability. The student, Jeffrey Johnson, was the third at Miami Carol City Senior High School to be shot to death that academic year. Moore drafted a petition to governor Charlie Crist demanding that he make the state’s schools and their surrounding communities safer. He concluded: “You are accountable to us for it!” Moore’s petition, which several thousand people have signed, focuses on tightening Florida’s gun laws, which are among the most lenient in the country. “I see these kids as the canary in the coal mine,” Moore says. “They’re the first to go. But ultimately all our lives are in danger.”
A version of this news article first appeared in the Web Watch blog.
