A Teacher’s Perspective on Mass School Shootings in the U.S.

In 2018, there have been at least 30 mass shootings, and we are only 45 days into the new year. Forty. Five. Days. Can you believe it? 

Back in April of 1999, I was three years old.

At the time, I truly had no idea what a mass shooting was or that they were common in the U.S. I had no idea that innocent people’s lives could be taken from them so quickly. I had no idea that some teachers risk their lives for their students, while other student’s watch their fellow teachers and classmates lose a fight that can’t be won. 

Thirteen people lost their lives on April 20, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado during the Columbine shooting.

In April of 2007, I was 10 years old.

At the time, I knew shootings happened but knew that nothing as terrible as a mass shooting could ever occur in such a small town like my own. I knew mass shootings often occurred without warning, by a stranger, and that most of the victims are chosen not for what they have done but for where they just so happen to be.

Little did I know that in Blacksburg, Virginia, the deadliest shooting in U.S. history by a single gunman was happening.

Thirty-two people lost their lives on April 16, 2007, during The Virginia Tech massacre. 

These two shootings aren’t the only things we have seen in recent years, and for some disturbingly horrific reason, these shootings continue to happen. 

It is February of 2018. I am almost 22 years old and currently finishing up my final semester of student teaching in a third grade classroom. And unfortunately, my outlook on mass shootings have not changed too much. But it has in the sense that back in 2007, I was the student, and now I am the teacher. 

School has always been a safe haven. A safe haven for the students, the entire faculty, the administration, the parents and the visitors. A school should always be a place where students feel loved, appreciated and accepted.

Should I feel scared after the shooting from yesterday? Should I feel angry? Should I feel relieved that my students and life weren’t taken? 

I’m not entirely sure how to feel, but I often find myself trying to grasp the world we are living in and how things like the mass shooting even happen. Especially as an educator – we are facing more and more school shootings in the U.S. than ever before.

Now is not the time to argue about gun control.

Now is not the time to give your two cents on what needs to be fixed in schools.

Now is not the time to say that all teachers need to have a gun.

Seventeen people lost their lives on February 14th, 2018, in Parkland, Florida. 

But thousands of people lost their classmates, their brothers and sisters, their sons and daughters, their cousins, their best friends, their boyfriends and girlfriends, their students and their classmates.

Now is the time to protect our students and control what we can.

Now is the time to love those that we have in and outside our classrooms.

And now is the time to send condolences to those who lost their loved ones without having a chance to say good-bye and pray for this harsh and evil world we are living in.