As said by Dr. Seuss “The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go,”. Education and the process of learning as a whole is an exceptional thing, and should be a positive place which allows trial and error while recognizing occasional yet grand successes on the way.
However, when a fear for safety overshadows learning in schools, it’s an unabating issue. To quickly summarize the large impact this issue is having, there have been close to 600 attacks on schools since the year 2000 (600 over the course of 24 years amounts to at least 25 attacks per year). This is a catastrophic number, which needs more attention brought to it. These attacks have resulted in over 1,500 deaths and an equally devastating amount of injuries. Majority of those who are killed due to these acts of violence are under the age of 18. This brief recollection of the attacks doesn’t nearly do justice for the amount of terror these hateful acts have caused, yet it’s still more than most people are aware of.
At the end of the day, there’s not much one single person can do to help these cases. Still, it’s increasingly important that students actively encourage and practice speaking up about this topic and other important issues which can lead up to this. Examples are mental health, bullying, and etc. It’s most important that schools take a stand and make an effort to protect their children from these strikes, and the trauma which follows for long after the actual attack. School shootings don’t just affect the injured families and students, but they cause devastation amongst whole communities. They’re a pivotal example of the heightening disconnect between a learning environment and a school. Until we close the distance between the two things, school shootings should be acknowledged with a much less fleeting tone.
