Betsy DeVos Is OK With Guns In Schools To Protect From 'Potential Grizzlies'

Twitter users are skewering education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos for her “potential grizzlies” remark during confirmation hearings before a U.S. Senate committee Tuesday. The now-trending comment was made when DeVos, the western Michigan voucher and school choice advocate picked by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Education, answered a question about her position on guns in schools.

“I think probably there, I would imagine that there’s probably a gun in the school to protect from potential grizzlies,” DeVos said, referencing a school in Wyoming that has a fence to keep out dangerous wildlife. She said states should decide school gun policies.

Some of the tweets mocked DeVos, but others raised concerns about her qualifications to lead the agency that oversees the nation’s public schools. DeVos and her billionaire husband Dick DeVos, heir to the Amway fortune, have donated millions of dollars to Republican political candidates who support voucher programs that help pay for private school tuitions. The DeVos children attended private school.

An example of Democrats’ concern came when DeVos stumbled on a question by Sen. Al Franken, a Democrat from Minnesota, who asked her whether she favored education policy based on growth or proficiency, as measured by standardized tests. Franken suggested her response demonstrated she does not have the “breadth and depth of knowledge” needed to be education secretary.

Here’s a collection of some of the tweets after her confirmation hearing