This resource was updated on Feb. 14, 2022.
Directions:
Read the summary and watch the video clips of
Fred Guttenberg speaking to educators/staff and students over a PBS NewsHour Educator Voice Zoom in 2021. Then answer the discussion questions. F
or students who want to learn more about gun violence and solutions as well as finding the helpers in their life after difficult times.
Summary:
February 14 is anniversary of the Parkland mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Fourteen students and three staff members were killed.
Jamie Guttenberg
In mid-January 2021, NewsHour Classroom held a Zoom with Fred Guttenberg, gun safety activist, founder of Orange Ribbons for Jamie and author of a new book “Find the Helpers:
What 9/11 and Parkland Taught Me About Recovery, Purpose, and Hope.”
The book focuses on those people in his Guttenberg's life who helped him get through the tragedy and continue to do so.
Jamie, Guttenberg’s daughter, was killed in the shooting. She was just 14-years-old. Guttenberg’s son Jesse survived the attack that day.
Fred Guttenberg also spoke with educators about his brother who died of cancer in 2017, after being exposed to toxins as a first responder at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11th.
The PBS conversation was hosted by Sari Beth Rosenberg, NYC public school teacher, and attended by dozens of educators, school staff, parents and students.
Guttenberg’s activism revolves around addressing the underlying problem of gun violence and guns and works to enact sensible gun safety legislation.
Highlight clips:
"My daughter was the toughest person I'll ever know in my life." — Fred Guttenberg
"You as the educators will teach about people who come out of this moment, heroes, leaders, that we don't think of today, but you'll be teaching about years from now." — Fred Guttenberg on the role of educators/school staff
"Always look for the helpers. There will always be helpers," Fred Guttenberg recalls the famous quote the name of his book by Mister Fred Rogers who offered variations of it over the years. The quote went viral after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, and once again after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Fred Guttenberg said he will remind legislators on every trip he makes to Washington D.C. how they feared for their lives during the Capitol Riots, and how that's exactly how his 14-year-old daughter Jamie felt before she was killed.
Discussion questions:
Warm up questions:
If time allows, watch the whole Zoom (1hr:9m) with Fred Guttenberg, educators and students from across the country.
- Who is Fred Guttenberg? Who was his daughter Jamie Guttenberg?
- What happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School three years ago on Feb. 14, 2018? What do the hashtags #ParklandStrong and #MSDStrong mean?
- Why did Guttenberg choose to write "Find the Helpers"?
- When and Where did the shooting take place? When was Guttenberg's book published?
- How has finding helpers in life helped Guttenberg to persevere in the tragic losses of his brother after 9/11 and his daughter in Parkland?
- Why do you think Fred Guttenberg became a gun safety activist after his daughter Jamie was killed in Parkland?
- Why does Guttenberg say that writing his book and finding the helpers in life helps him to honor his daughter Jamie?
- How might Guttenberg have addressed this particular audience differently to how he would address members of a Congressional committee on gun safety? How about an audience at a gun safety debate in which there are pro-gun control voices and anti-gun control voices?
If time allows, watch the whole Zoom (1hr:9m) with Fred Guttenberg, educators and students from across the country.
