School Shootings by Ashley Yelverton

            Waking up, groggy, blurry eyed, hearing the faint words coming from the T.V “happening now, Santa Fe is on lock down, due to an active shooter.” I instantly snap to my senses, thoughts are running wild throughout my head. Grabbing the phone I call my colleague, freaked out, I tell her what’s going on, she tells me “They can’t find Sabika, she’s unaccounted for, but they found Jaylen she’s okay.” My world is spinning so slowly I don’t know what’s real anymore, and my body begins to shake, I start to hear my heartbeat pulsating throughout my ears, it’s so loud that I can’t focus. My cold sweat falls downward off my face, hitting the floor, everything is in slow motion. People are talking, but I can’t hear a thing. All I see are their mouths moving, but nothing exiting. Can this really be happening, am I still dreaming? May 18, 2018, The day my world will forever be changed, a seventeen year old student brought a gun to the Santa Fe High School “Killing 10 people, many of them his fellow students, and wounding 10 more”(Fernandez 1). Will there ever be a solution to this horrific epidemic? 

History

           

            “The earliest known United States shooting to happen on school property was the Pontiac’s Rebellion school, on July 26, 1764”(Galvan). Every generation after, there has been recorded documentation of all the school shootings that took place the year of. “In the 1998-1999 school year, 3,523 students (57% High school, 33% Junior high, 10% Elementary) were expelled for bringing a firearm to school”(1). After the Santa Fe shooting in 2018, it was considered as the “22nd US school shooting, since the beginning of the year, and the third instance in eight days in which a gunman was on a school campus”(Andone 1).  In 2018 alone “Thirty-Five people died in school shootings, many ranging from the young age of fourteen to sixty-four years of age”(The School Shootings of 2018). The questions remains: What makes a person want to shoot up a school with thousands of innocent people inside? In a study “Psychologist Peter Langman found three types of school shooters- the traumatized, the psychopathic, and the psychotic”(Sweeney 1). A high percentage of people in America believe “Violent media, and a culture of permissiveness, play a role in school shootings”(1). The other few find “Fault with the country from its founding forward”(1). Stating things like “The patients are suffering from the side effects of their psychiatric medications, as well as, “America was built on violence, rape, and murder, thanks to our Founding Fathers”(1).

Social Effects

            “It is difficult for most of us to understand how anyone- regardless of their age, relationships, or grievance- could shoot a child or youth, especially on school grounds”(School Shootings 1). Parents of the shooters are often blamed for not “seeing the signs” but why? As a parent you wouldn’t expect the person you carried in your womb for nine months, and raised, to ever do something so horrific. “Blaming and shaming the parents is not conductive to finding answers”(Portsmouth 1). School shootings affect everyone and anyone who are involved, no doubt about it. The parents of the victims whose souls were lost, will never be able to hold their baby, kiss them, and tell them how much they love them. The parent of the shooter will forever wonder why their child decided to make that decision, they will begin to blame themselves for not being a better parent. The community will live in horror, and forever remain on their toes, wondering will it happen again? People will begin to watch their neighbors closely as they leave the comfort of their own home. Will they ever trust anyone anymore? Let’s not forget the people who fell victims to this heinous crime, many will soon fall into depression and suffer from PTSD. “The rate of PTSD in mass shootings may be high as thirty-six percent among survivors. Depression, another debilitating psychiatric condition, occurs in as many as eighty percent of people with PTSD”(Javanbakht). Sadly, that’s not the only thing the immediate survivors could possibly go through, there’s also survivor's guilt. “The feeling that they’ve failed others who have died, and have not done enough to save them”(1). Imagine young kids, teenagers, even the teachers having to go through such trauma because of one person.

Examples

            School shootings are nothing but rare, now a days you can find anyone with the horrific story of what happened to them or their family. Take me for example, May 18, 2018, will be the day that changed my life for the worse. I lost someone so special to me, her name was Sabika, she was beautiful, crazy, and a fun-loving person, she was a foreign exchange student from Pakistan. This was her first year in the United States, and she was so excited to learn the American culture, as well as share her own. My cousins were the ones who took her in when she moved down here, so we got to be very close, we even worked together. There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t miss her smile.

On the Friday morning of the Santa Fe shooting, I woke up, and glanced at the T.V, the news captions reading on every channel “Santa Fe is on lock down due to an active shooter.” Calling around, everyone kept stating that they can’t find Sabika, while on the phone with my mom she tells me she’ll let me know if there are any updates. Trying not to worry, me and my husband went on a drive, I remember sitting in the passenger seat, the shadows of the leaves running across my face. The hot sun beaming down on me, all I could feel is the warmth from it’s hot rays beating on my chest. My phone rings, my heart drops, my hands are sweaty, across the screen is written “Mom.” Not knowing what to expect, my voice trembling, I manage to get out the words “Hello?” The one thing she told me will always sick in my mind, “They found Sabika, she’s dead.” Slow motion once more, my phone dropping, hitting the car floor, the faint voice of my mother calling my name, my husband's hand on my shoulder. A small glistening tear falling off my face, my heart is beating out of  my chest, I’m suffocating, I can’t breathe, it feels like someone sucked all the oxygen out of the air. What feels like hours, was only seconds, I snap back to reality, I exit the car and drop to my knees, with my arms on my head, covering my face, screaming no.

What I felt at that time, I can never truly explain in words, and she was only my cousin, I couldn’t imagine what her parents felt, she was supposed to go home that next week. Why people do what they do, we can never fully understand, I just hope one day the world will be a better place, and no one will ever have to go through what we did.

Solutions

White candles, teddy bears, pictures of the victims on crosses, people scattered all across the school campus, tears falling off faces, soft whimpers coming from the crowd. The sun is falling downward, eventually overlooking a beautiful sunset. The clouds are a hue of colors, as you can almost feel like the lost souls are with you at that very moment. Praying begins, the soft whimpers turn into cries, everyone wondering “why?” The memorial ends, one by one they leave until the last person stands, holding their candle, wipes their falling tear, and blows out the flame.

Instead of wondering why these things happen let’s wonder what to do to prevent these things from happening. “Student and teacher awareness of weapons and threats is a potentially powerful way to prevent future tragedies”(Astor 1). Saying this they hope students and faculty will come forward if they find anything suspicious involving anyone on school grounds. We need more eyes watching, making sure no one has thoughts of taking innocent lives for no reason.

First off, I say we strengthen gun laws. “Changing the idea of “right to bear arms” to “privilege to bear arms”(Saidi 1). We need to make sure people are mentally stable owning a gun, “Make gun owners go through mandatory training”(1).

Arm the schools, elementary all the way to high school, need more protection. Improving school security will lessen the possibility of another fatality on school grounds. “Let’s get metal detectors, and require every person to go through security checks”(1). Which isn’t a bad idea if you think about it. It may seem overboard but at the end of the day, you know your child will be safe.

Cut down on violence in the media, meaning not letting so many kids play these horrific video games. “Why do we allow children and young adults to buy video games that put them in the position of being rewarded for shooting and killing other players”(1). Not saying all kids will fall victim to becoming a school shooter from playing these games, but there is a small percentage. The “US Department of Education found that between 1974 and 2000, only 12% of the 41 attackers had any interest in violent video games”(School Shooting reignite...1).

Improve mental health care, there needs to be more awareness of students mindsets, school shooters don’t do it “just because” there is always an underlying problem. “Pushing the blame on guns diverts it from the real need”(Saidi 1). Kids need to understand it’s okay to be seen by a professional if their feeling like harming themselves or others. “Stop assuming that it’s “just a phase” or “they’ll grow out of it”(1). If someone truly feels like a fellow student member is disturbed they need to step up.

Most importantly watch out for one another, if it came down to it try to stick together. Run, Fight, or Flight, either run like hell, or fight the shooter as a group. We as a nation hope to one day really crack down on school shooting, the more we have the more we learn. As sad as that statement is, it’s the truth.

The solutions I researched online, will help in the near future. We do need stricter gun laws, it’s so easy for a person underage to get their hands on one, at eighteen, their allowed to buy shotguns legally. So cracking down on guns will of course shorten the chances of shootings. I do think there needs to be real mental health test before buying a gun, and that goes for everyone, eighteen and up. Get better school security, have way more sheriff's roaming the halls, metal detectors at the doors, ID on everyone who walks through that school. At Texas City High School, after the Santa Fe shooting they started to put trackers in the students ID’s, which is a very smart thing. I pray that these things will eventually stop.

Camus and Absurdity

            “Albert Camus was a French-Algerian writer best known for his absurdist works”(Biography 1). I do think Camus beliefs do work with my topic, absurdity is all about ridiculous and wildly unbelievable situations. Someone entering school grounds with intentions to take people's lives is absurd. We can never truly understand why a person would do something like that, only they know. We hear them say “we were bullied”, “they made fun of my shoes”, “I just hated everyone in that school.” It’s just absurd excuses they come up with to try to get off with the crime. Murder will always be a serious crime, even if they were bullied they still decided to plan for months, and always tried to take as  many lives as possible, sometimes even their own. Which is the cowards way out.

Conclusion

            Hearts pounding, people screaming, everyone running, they hear gunshots in the distance, but there getting closer. Panic sets in, some people are getting trampled on and no one is helping. They watch as their classmates are being gunned down one by one and watching as they draw their last breath here on earth. They make it outside, but they can still hear the horrific sounds of screams and gunshots, so they keep running. What is only minutes feel like hours, we can only imagine what people go through in those situations.

Writing this essay brought back so many memories of a good friend I lost way to soon. I’m hoping  one day, we as America can fight this epidemic together as one. No one deserves to go through this, having to live with the fact that maybe they could of helped more and maybe their friend would still be here. Or having the parents think maybe I should of let them stay home today, and my baby would still be here. It’s truly heartbreaking, soul crushing, thinking that your sending your kids off to a safe environment only to never see them again. Will there ever be a solution to this horrific epidemic?

           

Works Cited

 “Albert Camus.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 10 Apr. 2019, www.biography.com/people/albert-camus-9236690.

 Andone, Dakin, and Keith Allen. “Alleged Shooter at Texas High School Spared People He Liked, Court Document Says.” CNN, Cable News Network, 19 May 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/05/18/us/texas-school-shooting/index.html.

Astor, Ron Avi. “7 Ways to Help Prevent School Shootings.” CNN, Cable News Network, 21 Feb. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/02/21/opinions/guns-in-schools-opinion-astor/index.html.

Fernandez, Manny, et al. “In Texas School Shooting, 10 Dead, 10 Hurt and Many Unsurprised.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 May 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/us/school-shooting-santa-fe-texas.html.

Glavin, Chris. “History of School Shootings in the United States.” History of School Shootings in the United States | K12 Academics, 26 July 2018, www.k12academics.com/school-shootings/history-school-shootings-united-states.

 Javanbakht, Arash, and Arash Javanbakht. “What Mass Shootings Do to Those Not Shot: Social Consequences of Mass Gun Violence.” The Conversation, The Conversation, 21 Feb. 2019, theconversation.com/what-mass-shootings-do-to-those-not-shot-social-consequences-of-mass-gun-violence-106677.

 Portsmouth Daily Times. “What Causes School Shootings?” Portsmouth Daily Times, 26 Mar. 2018, www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/opinion/26156/what-causes-school-shootings.

“School Shootings.” Center for Injury Research and Prevention, 4 Dec. 2018, injury.research.chop.edu/violence-prevention-initiative/types-violence-involving-youth/school-shootings#.XHQaQ-hKiM8.

 Saidi, Nicole. “10 Ways to Put Brakes on Mass Shootings in Schools.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15 Dec. 2012, www.cnn.com/2012/12/14/us/connecticut-shooting-reader-suggestions/index.html.

 “School Shootings Reignite Debate over Violent Video Games.” ProConorg Headlines, www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005400.

Sweeney, Dan. “Getting at the Root Causes of School Shootings: Experts and Readers Weigh In.” Sun-Sentinel.com, 23 May 2018, www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sound-off-south-florida/fl-reg-school-shooting-oliver-north-follow-20180523-story.html.