After the attack in Uvalde, Texas, thousands of people voiced demands for action to increase school safety. Since then, there have been other school shootings, including last week in Missouri. Though mass shootings are statistically rare (no comfort to those who lost loved ones), the threat of gun violence is eroding an essential foundation for teaching and learning: a sense of safety. Just as video games can desensitize the player to “killing,” the frequency of shootings can numb us to the real horror of each event. Waiting for the next mass shooting to reignite our passion for change puts our children and teachers at risk.
According to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gun violence has now surpassed motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death for children ages 1 – 19 and is identified as a major public health issue in our country. Researchers know that a complex web of issues creates the current conditions for gun violence in our schools. If we want to end school shootings, we must give equal, adequate, and immediate attention to laws and policies that impact all contributing factors.
Many schools lock their doors and restrict access during school hours. In Uvalde, there are now 8-foot-high metal fences around some schools. “Locking down” is part of the repertoire of preparedness drills schools regularly practice. School buildings do need to be secure, and it is essential to know what to do in case of emergency. Thankfully, very few schools will directly experience gun violence, but all schools must now be prepared for it, and we need to consider what it means to do so.
Recently, I was working at a local elementary school where I witnessed the skillful work of the lead teacher as she acknowledged the electric energy of 17 second graders reacting to a change in the daily routine. A mandatory lockdown drill was on the schedule. Having just retired from 31 years as an elementary school teacher, I recognized the familiar expressions of anxiety and fear — quiet and withdrawn; loss of self-regulation; irritability — all happening simultaneously in that classroom. The teacher shifted attention to her students’ needs, supporting them to identify the feelings that “lockdown” brought up — “scared,” “worried,” “nervous”— and reminding them of strategies to regain a sense of calm and safety in the classroom. It takes courage to effectively guide children to practice “lockdown” by huddling silently in a corner, knowing that we are doing so, in part, because people can enter schools and cause harm. I remember my own experiences on the mornings after Columbine, after Newtown, after Parkland. It is heart-wrenching to respond to children after these traumatic events.
Educators deserve our profound gratitude for doing their part by teaching safety protocols and social-emotional skills. Presently, they do so while also responding to pandemic-related academic and mental health issues. Educators need our action.
Arnulfo Reyes, one of the surviving teachers from Uvalde, was immediately shot when the gunman entered his classroom. He lay on the floor, severely injured, listening as his students were killed. (All of Arnulfo’s students died.) This memory now lives with him, and it is unbearable for us to even imagine. When he was released from the hospital, Arnulfo stated, “No training could have prepared teachers for what happened in the classroom that day … Nothing gets you ready for this … You can give us all the training you want but it’s — the laws have to change.”
We must get at the roots of gun violence by electing representatives who will engage across the aisle to seriously take on the full complexity of issues related to this public health crisis. We must defend our schools by banning civilian access to military-style assault weapons designed to kill many people in seconds. We must fully and equitably fund the academic, social-emotional, and structural needs of all schools, giving them tools to address safety and mental health issues and interrupt the cycle of violence. The Children’s Defense Fund reports that 14 million children in our country attend schools with a police officer but no counselor, nurse, psychologist, or social worker. We must do better than that.
We honor the children and teachers who have died by our commitment to make schools a safe place where children can thrive and flourish. We must pursue, relentlessly and thoroughly, all solutions to end the nightmare of school shootings. Let’s turn our fear, pain, and grief into concerted action on behalf of our children and grandchildren.
Robbie Murphy is an educator who lives in Colrain.