Quinta Brunson believes that Abbott Elementary’s universe wouldn’t fit an episode with a school shooting.
The creator and star responded to queries on why she won’t do a topical episode.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Brunson gave two reasons why such an issue won’t make sense for Abbott Elementary, even if she knows that school shootings are a common occurrence.
“I just think about the day-to-day in a workplace comedy, and I don’t think that that’s the realistic day-to-day in the classroom. There are two different realities. There’s the one present in the classroom where teachers are just trying to get through a lesson. And then there’s the outside perspective of us engaging with teachers through the news.”
Quinta Brunson Wants Abbott Elementary To Follow Everyday Stories
“I wanted to talk about, instead of ‘Janine confronts her Blackness,’ or ‘Janine deals with this race issue,’ it’s really just like, ‘Janine is trying to change a light bulb.’ I think that’s the way the majority of the people that I [know are]. When they’re at work, the issue at work is just the task at hand.”
Brunson admitted that her teacher friends are focused on getting through each lesson, even though they understand that school shootings are huge.
“They’re just trying to get the reading scores up. They’re just trying to do this job. If anything, the school shooting thing is in the background, like, ‘Fuck.’ It’s kind of like, ‘We got to deal with that too?'”
“I don’t want to open up my show to that political violence. I consider it that at this point — even the discourse of it is violent. And although I participate in it outside of my show, and I’m a huge advocate for eradicating gun violence in this country … I don’t think my show has to carry that.”
Brunson earlier revealed that gun violence had personally impacted her family.
However, instead of getting TV shows to showcase this issue, she prefers getting elected officials to address it through legislation.
“[P]eople are that deeply removed from demanding more from the politicians they’ve elected and are instead demanding ‘entertainment’. Gun violence is a constant, day after day problem. Mass shootings are only part of it. Stop saying nothing can be done. …. If you vote, demand more from the people you elected to change laws.”
