If you're from North Carolina then you are probably familiar with Butler High School. You know, the big school in Charlotte who has always been a huge powerhouse in the realm of high school football? I know I am. But this week I don't see them as the powerhouse who took my high school out of the playoffs my junior year. I see them as a school, a community, who is now mourning the loss of one of their own.
I don't want to get into how this is a gun issue. That can be discussed a different day. Today we need to discuss what is going to happen to keep the children alive. This is about children out there killing others and others coming in and killing the children.
Butler High School made the decision to continue classes for the day after the shooting. I read that and immediately felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to vomit. Has it really come to this? Have you really normalized this kind of violence and death in our lives and our schools?
I used to think schools were meant to be a safe haven for some children. At least that's what one professor of mine had said previously. They may not be getting meals at home or the same kind of positive attention. A school is a place where they can come and get a meal for lunch, play on the playground, joke around with friends, learn their favorite subject, a place where they can just be kids. That safe haven for them is now a place that isn't safe, it's a war zone.
It's more than just schools too. It has been grocery stores, movie theaters, and even concerts. When have all these places become places we should fear and have anxiety about going to. Now this can happen anywhere, I know that. But, why should it be a worry to us at all? I shouldn't be hesitant about going to the movies. I shouldn't be worried about going to school. But I am.
So all guns aside, all people for or against guns put your opinions about them away. What are we going to do to ensure that our children aren't going to die at school, that parents aren't scared of dropping them off in the morning? Why are we letting them normalize the death of kids? I think we should shift the focus from guns to the kids and their lives.
For me, this has become an issue, not because of the guns but because society is now starting to normalize these horrific events. It's not okay, it will never be okay and it should NEVER be normalized.
We need to start doing better. We have to start doing better. So let's do it. Let's be better.
With all this being said. My heart goes out to the young man's family. They lost their child and need the time to mourn without a camera and news vans. My heart goes out to the suspects family as well. They are also losing a child but in a different way. There is pain and sadness on all sides of this event.
Until next time,
Another ADHD Student
