On Wednesday (May 25), ABC’s Abbott Elementary‘s creator and star Quinta Brunson took to social media to set the record straight on a recent request from fans.
Following the recent tragedy on Tuesday (May 24), resulting in the death of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, the executive producer and writer decided to express how “wild” it has been that she is being asked to create a school-shooting episode.
“Wild how many people have asked for a school shooting episode of the show I write,” she tweeted. “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.’”
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."
— quinta brunson (@quintabrunson) May 25, 2022
In a thread of tweets, Quinta responded to the outlandish suggestion: “Please use that energy to ask your elected official to get on Beto time and nothing less. I’m begging you. 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. I’m sad about it.”
Abbott Elementary is a breakout series similar to the comedy style of NBC’s The Office. It follows a group of dedicated, passionate yet dysfunctional teachers—and an out-of-touch-principal—as they work in a lower-income Philadelphia public school where they are determined to help the students succeed in life, despite obstacles the children face. Although these essential public servants constantly are short-staffed and underfunded, they remain passionate about their jobs.
Earlier this year, Abbott Elementary launched real-life free book fairs for lower-income students. In partnership with Scholastic Books, the community efforts brought new reads to students across the U.S.
The highly-rated series has been renewed for a second season by ABC.