Editorial by Michelle Delaney, SLT Editor
On Tuesday morning, students and teachers entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, ready to celebrate the last few days of the school year. Only a few hours later, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, entered the school wearing body armor and brandishing assault rifles, killing, at least, nineteen, 2nd, 3rd and 4th-grade students, and two of their teachers.
It is the deadliest school shooting in Texas history.
Ramos, a resident of the tight-knit community, was shot and killed at the school. The rifles he had, were legally purchased when he turned 18-years old. Before heading to the school, he shot and critically injured his grandmother.
Columbine High School massacre took place in 1999, and was then the worst mass school shooting ever in U.S. history; now it ranks fourth. In 2012, twenty-one young students and 6 adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. In 2018, a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, FL. claimed 17 people.
When bad things happen, people have a tendency to look ahead, not backward. Yet, people should never ignore, forget or worse say, “It didn’t happen”.
Mass shootings at schools are very rare except in the U.S.
Years after the massacres at Columbine High, Sandy Hook Elementary, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, and all the other mass shootings of the innocent, very little has been done.
A moment of silence – Is that enough?
When will the rights of our children be acknowledged? When will we stop using bandaids to cover up an epidemic?
President Biden said in a grief-driven remark after this last mass shooting; “Why are we willing to deal with this carnage?…..Get a backbone and channel grief into change”.
Schools should be safe havens for children. Every day students go to school worried about not coming home. Trying to soothe a despondent student is difficult. Arming teachers and faculty with guns is not a good or long-term solution.
Background checks, cutting-edge technology, security systems, and drills – Is that enough?
A traumatized nation needs strong leaders who are able to successfully walk its people through changing times and violent events with honesty, accountability, and trustworthiness.
Get to know who is running for office in your districts and make educated choices. The face or name you recognize may not be the person you want to vote for.
The nation has gotten a rude awakening, once again. Now is the time to begin making a difference; if not for you, then for your children. Is that enough?
Enough is Enough. How would you make a difference? Would it be enough?
