6 February 8 - 14, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Anti-Gun Queen Former Miss Texas wins gun-safety award amid bid for Texas House. BY SIMONE CARTER G rowing up, Averie Bishop would be sure to pinpoint the closest doors or exits in class- rooms, just in case a school shooter were to strike. Many Texans her age are familiar with that same type of anxiety, something that the 27-year- old is seeking to address by vying for office. Bishop broke boundaries in 2022 by be- coming the first Asian-American Miss Texas. She’s since transcended from pag- eants to politics and is now running unop- posed in the Democrat primary for state House District 112. And now the Dallas resident can add an- other accomplishment to her resume: recipi- ent of the first GIFFORDS Champion Award. Last month, the gun violence prevention organization GIFFORDS announced the four honorees in the award’s inaugural class, in- cluding Bishop. Each of the winners is dedi- cated to pursuing sensible firearm safety laws. “What I’m advocating for, and what my generation wants, is to feel safer in places like schools, churches and grocery stores,” Bishop said. Young Texans have grown up doing lock- down drills in schools and watching mass shootings unfold on the news. They’ve coped with hearing about the latest massacre to plague their state — from Sutherland Springs to El Paso to Uvalde to Allen — in addition to the daily gun violence rocking communities. Nearly 4,000 people are fatally shot in Texas in a typical year, according to Every- town for Gun Safety. The dominant cause of death for Texas kids and teens? Guns. The need for firearm reform serves as an impetus for Bishop’s campaign to unseat the Republican incumbent, longtime state Rep. Angie Chen Button of Richardson. “This is the future of the people that live in our state,” the Southern Methodist Uni- versity law school graduate said. “And if we don’t take action now, we’re going to con- tinue to live in fear.” Kevin O’Keefe, GIFFORDS Champion Award director, explained that the organiza- tion was founded by former U.S. Rep. Gabri- elle Giffords of Arizona after the Sandy Hook school shooting. Giffords survived be- ing shot in the head during a 2011 constitu- ent event near Tucson. Since then, she’s worked toward ending gun violence. Another North Texan joined Bishop in be- ing named a GIFFORDS winner: trauma sur- geon Dr. Brian Williams, who’s running for the seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Colin Allred. Young people today are bringing drive and dynamism to this issue, O’Keefe said. “We have a champion in Averie who can speak on behalf of that generation now that they are running for office,” he added. “And I do think come 2024, they are going to be the voting bloc that puts us over and allows us to continue to build on the progress we’ve made.” Having worked as a substitute teacher for a time in Richardson ISD, Bishop knows the worries faced by many teachers, staff and administrators. To stave off would-be shoot- ers, districts in North Texas and beyond have enacted “hardened” security measures. At the same time, Texas is home to some of the nation’s weakest firearm legislation. “We don’t have extreme risk protection orders, we don’t have waiting periods and we don’t have background checks for every gun purchase,” Bishop said. “Those are the main initiatives that I want to carry through when I become elected and as I will work alongside GIFFORDS here in the state of Texas.” There is, in fact, significant support for certain reforms in the state. More than three-quarters of Texas vot- ers, 76%, replied in a poll last year that they want to see the minimum gun-purchase age raised from 18 to 21. Nearly 80% of residents in a 2022 poll backed the idea of mandating background checks on firearm sales. Yet, Texas politicians have doubled down on unraveling restrictions and adding even more weapons into the mix. Thanks to the 2021 legislative session, a license is no lon- ger needed to carry a handgun. Thanks to the 2023 session, each school must have armed personnel. But Bishop’s generation could help to turn that tide. More than 8 million newly eligible Gen Z voters will be able to throw their weight be- hind gun-reform candidates at the polls this year. “Right now, our schools are no longer one of the safe spaces we can send our chil- dren to without being concerned about, ‘Is my child going to return home to me to- day?’” Bishop said. “Parents should never have to feel that way. Students should never have to feel that way.” ▼ FREE SPEECH SPIRITED AWAY UT DALLAS NIXES ‘SPIRIT ROCKS’ OVER ISRAEL, PALESTINE. BY SIMONE CARTER S tudents have been throwing stones at the University of Texas at Dallas since the administration nixed its so- called Spirit Rocks from campus late last year. Now, one of the country’s leading free speech organizations is demanding that the school replant the stones. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) published an article in mid-January calling on UT Dallas to straighten up its act. College kids had long painted three large boulders there as an outlet for expression, but the administration appar- ently got squeamish after messages related to the Middle East conflict began to crop up. FIRE program officer Graham Piro said that campus speech about Israel and Palestine has been quite discordant in recent decades. “It’s always been a divisive topic,” he said. “But it’s really sort of gone into overdrive in the past couple of months.” And students really seem to want the rocks back. In a social media poll conducted by UT Dallas’ student-run paper, The Mer- cury, 92% of respondents disapproved of the choice to ditch the rocks. Many participants cited the squelching of free speech as a big concern. “Politics [were] always discussed at the Spirit Rocks,” one person said, according to The Mercury. “In reality, this is a targeted censorship.” The latest photo on the Instagram account @utdrockwars shows that the stones had been removed from their spot. Students had adorned the Spirit Rocks with conflict-related art since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Old photos show “FREE PALESTINE” emblazoned on a hulking stone; in another pic, the Star of David shines. What’s happening at UT Dallas is only one such controversy to erupt throughout academia in recent weeks. Three university presidents came under fire during a heated congressional hearing last month as they were pressed on whether punishments would be doled out to students who call for the genocide of Jewish people. And in November, FIRE slammed Massa- chusetts’ Brandeis University for banning its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. A letter from FIRE to UT Dallas on Dec. 1 called on administrators to reinstall the Spirit Rocks. UT Dallas did not respond to the Observ- er’s request for comment. Since the rocks were installed on campus in 2008, students have marked them as a way to share words of congratulations and support, Piro said. But while the policy governing the spirit stones suggested that they could be used for such announcements, it did not stipulate that they be used only for those purposes. Students had for years aired other political messages on the rocks, as reported by The Mercury. In 2009, a green stone shouted: “FREE IRAN.” In 2015, a black boulder de- clared: “#BLACKLIVESMATTER.” In 2020, blue text implored: “VOTE BLUE.” It appeared that UT Dallas welcomed ex- pression about the Israel-Palestine conflict, at least at first. In an Oct. 16 message, Presi- dent Richard C. Benson applauded students’ civil discussions on the matter. Before long, though, proclamations such as “Zionism = Nazism” seemed to grate on school leaders. The university announced the following month that the three rocks had been scrapped. Piro views that choice as problematic on multiple levels. It sends the message that when political speech offends some on cam- pus, it will be snuffed out. “The university was allowing the rocks to be used for other forms of political expression, but it decided that the viewpoints that stu- dents were expressing about the Israeli-Pales- tinian conflict were too much and closed down the rocks,” Piro said. “And the university can’t be closing a public forum like that in viewpoint discriminatory ways.” Piro pointed to a similar free speech con- troversy at the University of Connecticut. Late last year, that school opted to keep its own spirit stones after nearly stopping the tradition because of Israel-Palestine-related tags. UT Dallas’ silence on the issue is frustrat- ing, Piro said. As of late last month, his group still hadn’t received a response. ▼ CANNABIS BIG DECRIM GROUND GAME TEXAS BRINGS MARIJUANA DECRIMINALIZATION EFFORT TO TOWN. BY JACOB VAUGHN I f everything goes according to plan, Dallas just might become a lot more 4/20-friendly in the near future. An orga- nization called Ground Game Texas has been working to decriminalize marijuana across the state and is bringing the effort here. The timing of Ground Game Texas’ Dal- las arrival isn’t merely coincidental. The city is in the process of amending its charter. The deadline for proposed amendments Jenna Horn | UNFAIR PARK | >> p8 Averie Bishop is running for Texas House District 112, currently held by longtime incumbent state Rep. Angie Chen Button, a Richardson Republican.
