On Wednesday, May 25, the secondary staff at the school where I work had our usual weekly meeting. We talked about how graduation went, sent our congratulations to a coworker who had just given birth to her son, and discussed the schedule for the last days of school. We talked about device check-in and who was keeping their laptops over the summer.
At last, the superintendent made a brief announcement. “Many of you are well aware,” he began, “of the shooting in Texas. The administration team will be meeting here after we’re finished to discuss putting out an email to parents.”
My mind was blank
Nobody came
Eventually I packed up my stuff and returned to my office. Students were going about their day, excited for the end of school, cramming for their finals and hurrying to finish up papers and projects. I heard a few offhand comments about arming teachers, and that the event was “sad,” but that was it.
At the end of the day, as I was getting in my car, a sick wave of realization crashed through me. I had a moment to myself to really feel what was going on inside, and it was terror and chaos. I was gripped by a horrible knowledge that I couldn’t process.
There have been so many school shootings in this country, so close together, that everyone seems to have gone numb to them
Even many of our students, so young and just starting out in the world, have become completely desensitized to mass shootings, to the horrific deaths of children just like them.
Teachers, as well, seem to have accepted that they might be targeted for murder. We have embraced our helplessness, like these shootings are deadly storms created by our climate that no mortal can control or reliably predict. That they are simply forces of nature.
Let that sink in
Mass shootings in schools that leave dead children and teachers in their wake have seemingly become an accepted risk of existing in this country.
Then tell me again about your constitutional right to bear arms.
