Our elementary school teachers lost their virginity on Friday. I, for one, would have preferred these mostly women who wear goofy clothes and don't seem to mind disgusting substances wiped onto their persons to have remained immaculate. Every high school and middle school teacher has been sullied since Columbine. Every single day I walked into my classroom after April 20, 1999, I was hyper-aware that this could be the day where I would have to make life and death decisions for myself and for my students. This latest school shooting should make at least one undeniable point: There's no such thing as a 'secure school'. Another depressing outcome of Friday's catastrophe is more talented people will shy away from choosing teaching as a career. No school district pays hazard/combat pay.
We are currently 'on the road' driving from Arizona to Texas. I've been talking, talking and talking to people about this latest shooting atrocity. For the first time I haven't heard 'guns aren't the problem'. Instead, what I keep hearing is 'enough is enough'. I've heard many people today preface their comments with, "I'm a hunter, but the second half of the sentence has surprised me: To paraphrase, I've heard: "This is 'fucked up', and 'something needs to be done'. I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic that at least conversation among us can be opened. If we are actually going to talk to one another, then our preconceived, knee-jerk reactions need to be jettisoned. The real question is this: What needs to be talked about?
At this point, I can hear your thoughts: Gun Control. I say that's not the topic. Those two words are loaded with so many connotations people stop listening and, thus, no dialogue. Am I personally in favor of assault weapons being banned in the USA? Yes. Would I like multi-ammo clips curtailed? Yes. Would those actions stop these senseless killings? No. You see, we need to also be talking about mental illness as well as assault weapons. Profilers postulate people who perpetrate these horrific crimes show specific mentally ill behaviors, and those behaviors aren't the obvious Hollywood stereotypical crazy. Factor in easy access by the mentally ill to weapons that fire so damn many bullets in a few seconds, and Newport happens. Nobody can stomach this kind of atrocity.
This kind of violence against our children can't be shrugged off anymore. I think that's why I'm hopeful the Newport shooting is the mythical tipping point where the American public finally unplugs from The Voice and their smart phones and their video games and TV sports to coalesce at a consensus about how we are going to deal with this unacceptable level of violence being evidenced by dead children. I haven't come across a single person who has intimated that 20 dead first graders is a price we are willing to pay. Freedom to own unlimited guns shouldn't have Friday's price tag.
It's easy to be sad, baffled, or resigned. We need to transfer our sense of outrage, sadness, and feelings of helplessness into positive action. So, the question again is what needs to be talked about? Here's my answer: (1) mental illness, particularly mental illness among young adults. We need to find an avenue which allows parents or their siblings not only to force treatment upon the young adult in their family who is mentally ill, but also to direct it and control it. Mentally ill adults should not have the responsibility for their own treatment decisions. (2) We need to get our hunters in this country to help the rest of us decide what guns are acceptable and necessary to this sport, and which ones are not. (3) We need to standardize our gun and ammunition laws across state lines. (4) If you are going to be a gun user, then you should be required to have training. I mean, for crying out loud, you have to jump through more hoops to own a car.
I'm sure there are other factors and difficult issues to be discussed, but if we could even start here, I think it would go a long way to make every public school teacher feel like they are not facing life and death jeopardy just by going to work every day. It would help the rest of us to feel like we are doing something positive to head off a repeat of Newport. I'm ready for conversation and solutions to be seriously proposed and adopted. Twenty first graders can not have lost their lives for nothing. I'm tired of fatalism and tacitly accepting that nothing can be changed. Enough is enough.
