ACTIVE SHOOTER…… IN YOUR CHILD’S SCHOOL

Modern parents receive text notifications from their children’s schools for a myriad of topics. Snow delays, events, and even water boil advisories.

And given the state of our country, it feels probable that I or someone I know could receive a text that reads as:

ACTIVE SHOOTER AT WATTS MIDDLE SCHOOL IN CENTERVILLE, OHIO.

OR AT:

JOHN HOLE ELEMENTARY

CENTERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL

WORLD OF LOVE DAYCARE

OAKWOOD SCHOOLS

ALTER HIGH SCHOOL

TROY CITY SCHOOLS

INCARNATION SCHOOL

MASON CITY SCHOOLS

SPRINGBORO JUNIOR HIGH

ST. SUSANNAH’S

 

Hit pause for a second and think about that.

 

That is a short list for me of the children that I know and care about and the schools they attend. I really have no words to know how anyone copes with receiving an alert like that. It makes me feel sick to my stomach to just write it.

But it just happened this week. Again. To the parents of elementary, middle and high school students outside of Denver.

I remember crying and feeling heartache for days when Columbine happened. TWENTY YEARS AGO.

I remember lying in the fetal position on my couch watching the Sandy Hook footage. I had never felt so alone in my life for personal reasons leading up to that. And then I was completely paralyzed that twenty children ages 6-7 were slaughtered at school. THAT WAS SIX YEARS AGO.

And it keeps happening.

My daughter, Kate, saw the news alert about the school shooting, and then gave me the details of their ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) drill last Friday. I am beyond grateful that my children live in a school district that has the resources to plan and execute these drills. But it breaks me in two that they must have them at all….

Have you asked a child in modern America what these drills are like?

The principal comes over the PA system and announces that there is an Active Shooter in the West area of the school.

The teachers know it is a drill.

The students do not.

So it feels real.

 

Hit pause for a second and think about that.

 

As Kate explained to me, the teacher decides how to respond. In her case, her math teacher shut and locked the door, and asked for help in barricading the door with desks. Then all students had to cram against the interior wall, so they couldn’t be seen through the door window.

The teacher across the hall decided that her class would run for it. So they line up, and run as fast as possible outside, running in a zig zag line. Like infantry soldiers are trained.

We now have forced teachers to decide how to react in a shooting for their students.

 

Hit pause for a second and think about that.

 

These esteemed individuals that are entrusted with our children’s educations now must act like generals in battle. Responsible entirely in a life and death situation – gauging whose life might be lost based on their orders and direction.

Folks – we should be ashamed of ourselves that we have not made progress on this better and faster. The United States has had 57 times as many school shootings as other major industrialized nations. Combined.

And while I think that the NRA plays a role, I am not going to debate that theme right here, right now. It is a post in and of itself.

To me, the problems are in layers.

I am striving to live as a non-judgmental person, but how do you not know that your loved one isn’t planning to take a gun to school and shoot people? I know when my kids are using more toilet paper than usual and hiding candy in their rooms. And I read their phones and don’t care if they are unhappy with me about that.

But then it sounds like the system fails often even when a person is identified as having deteriorated mental health and an unhealthy fascination with guns, killing, and mass shootings. We have disabled our law enforcement to take full action when someone comes on their radar.

Our public mental health support and options are spotty at best.

And do we live in a society that acts like a community? Do we try to support one another? Do we intervene when we should? Are we so consumed with our own lives, agendas, success, etc that we don’t act for change?

I don’t have all the answers, but I am highly motivated to be part of the change. You know how you carry a fear that you feel in your heart, your stomach, and in your bones?

I feel that for my children and what could happen to them in a school shooting.

And again –

WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS.

Open to suggestions on the best resources, and I am scoping out Moms Demand Action. The Story of Moms is profound. And it ties to the premise that women – collectively – can advance significant change together.

Until then.

Will the text alert that pops up be about my child?

Or yours?

 

*: Photo by Natalie Chaney on Unsplash