U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos recently appeared before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee to speak about President Donald Trump’s budget request for her department.  
Gabriella Muñoz of The Washington Times reported several senators raised concerns over DeVos’ stances on civil rights, Federal Work-Study assistance programs, and federal grants, but perhaps the most daunting moment was an exchange between the Secretary and Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy. Her full testimony can be watched via C-SPAN.
Leahy, the senior Democrat on the committee, noted DeVos was appointed Chair of the President’s School Safety Commission after the Parkland Shooting. Leahy then noted since her appointment, the country is averaging one school shooting a week, and requested to know whether or not the she would look at the role of firearms, as it relates to gun violence in schools.  
DeVos responded saying, “that is not part of the commission’s charge, per se.” In Leahy’s words, DeVos is “studying gun violence, but not considering the role of guns.”
Rather than the role of firearms in gun violence in our schools, DeVos noted her commission is researching the role of video games on school gun violence. Leahy then requested to know whether or not DeVos was considering the fact students from several countries around the world play the same video games as Americans, but are not subjugated to the same high level of gun violence. DeVos responded her commission was not considering the fact “per se.”
Leahy’s questions to DeVos yet again proved her complete inability to lead the School Safety Commission, let alone the Department of Education.  
According to Cornell University’s Law School, the myth of violence in video games being correlated to increased school shootings was officially debunked by the federal government in June 2011. The Supreme Court ruled this research did not find a clear connection between video games and gun violence in schools. 
Furthermore, according to the writings of Christopher J. Ferguson and John Colwell in the Journal of Education, the American Psychological Association’s policy statement on the subject in part states, “Video games cannot be linked to criminal violence.”  
Even if DeVos’ commission finds more compelling evidence than an organization devoted to the study of psychological impacts, she would have a difficult time doing anything with this information since the Supreme Court already ruled against her assertions.
Under DeVos’ misguided, uninformed and abominable leadership, the School Safety Commission will be completely unable to fulfill its goal of researching school violence, just as the Department of Education has failed to perform its responsibilities to American students and educators under her leadership.
Should DeVos follow Leahy’s advice of exploring the trend in school shootings in the U.S. and then abroad, she would come across some very startling statistics. One example of this is from Amanda Erickson of the Chicago Tribune, who reported dangerous countries like Guatemala and Yemen have lower rates of school shootings. 
DeVos would even find when all countries in the world which have reported school shootings since 2000 are compiled, the numbers of school shootings in the U.S. are staggering in comparison, surmounting to half of the world’s total cases of school shootings. For DeVos to not recognize the role of guns in these statistics is tragic.
Rather than focusing on video games, perhaps DeVos should focus on the academic success of American students. According to Drew Desilver of Pew Research Center, American students rank 38th globally on test scores in math, science and reading.  
The U.S. even ranks below the world average on math scores. Rather than equipping teachers with false information, it may behoove DeVos to equipment them with the resources necessary to better the global standing of the U.S. Another possible way to improve test scores is to improve students’ sense of safety while they are in class–something the School Safety Commission will inevitably fail to do under DeVos’ leadership.
According to Alastair Jamieson of NBC News, DeVos once asserted grizzly bears were a considerable threat to American schools.
Perhaps Trump should explore relocating DeVos, whom I consider to be a considerable threat to American students, to a place where her concerns are valid – in the middle of the woods, far, far away from the Department of Education. In my opinion, this is where our government should start on the long road of securing our schools whilst protecting Americans’ right to the Second Amendment.