Abbott Elementary creator Quinta Brunson has said she is being inundated with “wild” requests from fans to write a school shooting episode, following the deadly attack in Texas this week.
On Tuesday (24 May), 19 children and two teachers were killed after a teenage gunman went on a shooting rampage at Robb Elementary school.
The shooting is the deadliest in a US primary school since the 2012 Sandy Hook killings in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 children and six adults were killed.
The shooter, named as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was wearing body armour and had a handgun and a rifle, all of which are commercially available in the state of Texas, which expanded access to guns as recently as last year.
Posting to Twitter on Wednesday, Brunson wrote: “Wild how many people have asked for a school shooting episode of the show I write.
“People are that deeply removed from demanding more from the politicians they’ve elected and are instead demanding ‘entertainment.’ I can’t ask ‘are yall ok’ anymore because the answer is ‘no.’”
She urged people to “please use that energy to ask your elected official to get on Beto time and nothing less”, adding: “I’m begging you.”
Brunson continued: “I don’t want to sound mean, but I want people to understand the flaw in asking for something like this. we’re not okay. this country is rotting our brains. im sad about it.”
Abbott Elementary, a US mockumentary that airs on ABC, centres on a group of committed teachers working at a struggling school in Philadelphia. The teachers are determined to give their students the best start in life possible, despite the school being underfunded.
