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Teacher unions and trade unions in the United States are working togetherto provide support and resources to the Orlando community after the mass shooting at a night club in June.

Together, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Florida Education Association, the National Education Association (NEA), the Service Employees International Union, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have joined forces to offer counselling to members, patients and their families who have been affected by last month’s mass shooting that killed 49 people. The organisations are working to assemble resources for parents and teachers to help children make sense of the events.

“We were just heartbroken and shocked by the mass shooting. But we take action and change this, not just to help the victims and their families, but to institute a permanent change,” said Wendy Doromal, President of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association, an AFT affiliate in Orlando, Florida. “While the issue of gun violence must be addressed through police change, we must remember that social justice does not occur merely through the enactment of law, but through education as well,” she added.

Joint action for the public good

“We work together with our state and local union brothers and sisters and the different established community centres and non-profit organisations in the area and with the mayor’s office to make a plan for teachers to get involved,” she said. One of their first actions was to use social media to call for blood donation, she notes. That was so successful “that the lines [of people] wrapped around the building” with up to a 15-hour wait to give blood. Our union put out a call to bring water and food to people waiting.

It also called out to Spanish-speaking teachers to help with translation for the victims’ families, since most of them were Latino people and many of their relatives did not speak English, Doromal said.

There was also a need for grief counsellors, so “we asked our school counsellors and social workers to go to the centres where they needed help for that”.

Return to safe school

Doromal said teachers are now working to ensure that students feel safe when they return to school, “because their idea of a safe community was shattered when this happened in their neighbourhood”.

She added: “As students are not going to forget what happened when the school opens, we want to make sure that there are lessons and attention given to them to ensure that they feel safe, that they can actually get involved in ways, like sending thank you letters to the workers in hospitals,  policemen and firemen”.

She also reiterated that every school should be inclusive and welcoming for every student. The AFT’s Share my Lesson posted valuable resources. Our union at the recent AFT Convention 2016 adopted a recommendation  on “ School safety and educational opportunity for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) students”.

The NEA also released resources for students, educators, and families to conduct meaningful conversations toward healing in the wake of the Orlando mass shooting and other national tragedies, and decided to implement an action plan to prevent acts of discrimination and violence targeted at people who are perceived or identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning.

Influence change: voting decisions

There are a lot of cross-cutting issues in this, Doromal said: LGBTQ equality, hatred, gun violence. In the current political climate “we work as teachers to be leaders in our communities, to influence decisions  and getting out to vote to elect candidates who will work to make our community a safe and loving place, where schools are publicly funded,” she said. “We continue our work build social alliances to make changes in our community, for our students for better public education ... to make sure that every school has the tools and resources they need for every single student to be a success.”