Did you know there have been 52 school shootings thus far this year in the US? Of the 52, 16 have been on college campuses while 36 occurred at K-12 facilities. I had no clue. Why have school shootings become routine activities? If we are so outraged when they occur, why are we unable to eradicate it? And why do we not hear about them?
I’m a retired educator. During my career I was witness to the escalation of the incidence of school shootings. Watching the horror unfold in Littleton, CO., on April 20, 1999, I was struck by the similarity of the school to the school that employed me as a teacher. It was uncanny. Ironically I was able to tune in because it was the week of our April break.
It’s no secret that I’m an avid reader. Though I’ve read most genres in literature, my favorite remains a well-constructed mystery. In fact, due to my reading within the Detective Fiction, True Crime, and Forensic offerings, I would be a pretty good investigator. Lots of the enjoyment of reading mysteries, for me, is to follow the clues and to try to map out a conclusion. That’s a simplistic view. There’s just so much more.
Despite my dislike of college psychology courses, the psychology of aberrant behavior is fascinating in a macabre way. I cannot fathom how people think so easily to harm others. Though I’m able to understand a human being reaching a breaking point and snapping, I do not begin to understand a mind that enjoys hurting others.
That aside, I’m tired of violence. Is school violence a gun control issue or a mental health issue? Is it both? Is it our changing societal norms? Is it too many things to untangle? I’m sorry to say I have no answer. Believe me, I’ve given it a great deal of thought. All I know is children should not feel frightened to go to school.
Last week, the teacher’s description of the fear these children showed is a phenomenon a child should never experience within a school building, barring a natural disaster like a tornado. I know that feeling of fear, though mine had a different source. It never leaves you, ever.
I live about a two-hour drive from Newtown, CT. The mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012, took all of five minutes. The perpetrator took his own life after killing 20 children, mostly ages 6 & 7, and six adults at the school. Police would find he’d killed his mother first before heading to the school.
Many of these incidents have a rapid response from law enforcement. Since the Columbine tragedy, communities have developed plans to deal with these situations. These plans also rely on their individual components. As we saw with the Uvalde and Marjory Stoneman Douglas (Parkland High) tragedies, vital pieces within the response teams failed to work as expected. And many perpetrators of school-based shootings have to force their way into school buildings now.
Even the horrific Las Vegas Shooting in 2017 lasted only ten minutes. During that time 58 were killed and over 400 were wounded. Parkland High’s incident took six minutes (17 deaths). The Virginia Tech shooting lasted eleven interminable minutes (33 deaths). Public outcry is swift after these incidents. Many thoughts and prayers are offered. Measures are taken to secure school buildings, though time is showing us the perpetrators find ways around this.
Now we have a President in our country who is not even able to express condolences for victims. He’s more apt to say he’s glad the perpetrator killed himself because he was obviously a nasty person. And because our politicians are making so much money from lobbyists and manufacturers, they do not seem willing to modify gun laws.
I believe in a person’s right to bear arms HOWEVER we are no longer a country that needs weapons to raise militias for our defense and the majority of the people in our country do not rely on a weapon to provide their food. That’s all I’m saying about that.
Do we need to focus on these horrible events? No. But they should not be swept under the rug nor should they be underreported. That smacks of media manipulation which occurs more and more each day.
Bottom line…no child should be frightened to go to school. Children deserve to feel safe at school, that includes teenagers, college students, etc.
“I’m sick of hearing that there’s nothing we can do/This time could be the spark, the start of something new…” Parkland (Into the Silence) Surfer Blood
