Pennsylvania School Board votes down NRA grant for rifle team: 'This is dirty money'

[DonViejo]

Jacqueline Palochko
Of The Morning Call

In a heated meeting, the Stroudsburg Area School Board voted against accepting a nearly $5,000 grant from the NRA for its rifle team, with one school director calling it “dirty money.”

At Monday’s school board meeting, the board voted 6-2 to not accept a $4,730 grant from the NRA. An AP analysis published earlier this month showed that the NRA has given more than $7 million in recent years to 500 schools through grants.

Stroudsburg High School has never received this grant before. Members of the rifle team applied for it. Two students who spoke to the board before the vote said their equipment dates from the 1970s.

Reaction was split from the audience, which was crowded with parents, students and members of the rifle team. Members of Monroe County United, a local nonprofit, were also there and opposed the grant.

Many parents applauded the board’s vote, but others were visibly upset. "Remember, we all vote,” one man said after the board’s decision, implying directors could be voted out of office.

more
http://www.mcall.com/news/education/mc-nws-stroudsburg-school-board-nra-grant-20180326-story.html

[SoCalNative]

1. Let the parents

pay for the rifle team if they are so gung-ho about it.

[Fred Sanders]

5. High school rifle teams are kind of on the far edge of school

activities.

The NRA has become toxic generally speaking, and pure poison in schools.

The thought these times would never come...but my thoughts and prayers were answered by Stoneman Douglas students post-gun massacre.

[Jake Stern]

12. That's kind of the way I feel about most school sporting activities

If the community wants a high school football team, rifle team, etc then let the parents and community pay for such things out of their pocket, not with tax dollars.

Used to piss me off something fierce that the school board always had plenty of cash for the high school football team but the Science Club was told "Sorry, we just don't have the money" when they came, hat in hand, asking for some help leaving them to use worn out equipment from the 50s.

Sorry sports junkies but, to me, the Science Club and the History Club and the Spanish Club are far more valuable than any fucking Friday Night Lights bullshit.

[gratuitous]

2. "Remember, we all vote"

Yeah, I'm sure these elected officials remember that quite well, Mr. one man. And since a candidate needs a majority of the vote to win election, I'm betting they've run the numbers and they aren't too worried about losing the blood money vote.

The question is, what will NRA terrorists do when votes don't go their way anymore? When the power of the fear they've depended on for so long turns into a damp squib? Are they willing to do the hard work of rebuilding a majority coalition, or will they look for a shortcut?

[spanone]

3. dirty money indeed.

[TheBlackAdder]

4. OUCH!

[Lee-Lee]

6. Thats literally turning down money to promote teaching firearms safety and sports

Just because you don’t like the people who have it.

So they are punishing the students only to make a political point.

That’s pretty sad, no matter what your opinion of the NRA, because it only punishes the students.

[catbyte]

8. So if the Gambino Family had offered the Rifle Club a grant, they should've taken it?

The NRA as much as admitted they funneled foreign money through their organization to give to Republican candidates for office, especially the one currently infesting the White House. That is money laundering and that is a crime. The NRA is as dirty as the day is long. But if your moral compass says that's okay, whatever floats your boat.

[hatrack]

9. If the rifle team matters to the school, they'll find the money

.

[erronis]

10. So you don't think there will be a little bit of promotion of firearms...

Maybe the NRA could talk about bullets that do the maximum harm once they've entered the body. You know, to take down that precious buck.

Or how to duck and run when someone in the woods opens up with a semi-automatic?

You say "punishing the students". Which students? Are the majority of the students part of some gun team? Isn't this the same as making everyone pay for the tiddle-winks or football team?

[Aristus]

11. The NRA isn't concerned with firearm safety.

Only firearm sales...

[SunSeeker]

7. K & R

[Cha]

13. That's Encouraging! nm