When I first watched this I thought I was watching some sweet love story on facebook. That sweet love story came to a complete halt. A school shooting makes everything stop. According to Everytownresearch.org there have been 196 school shootings since 2013. 196 times in the past three years students have to face the horrifying truth that the are going through a traumatic event that can end every small detail of their life.
This video really left me thinking. School shootings have been a big problem, and the people affected by Sandy Hook wanted to put out the message that we need to be aware of the warning signs. You don't see the signs until it's too late. It is time to really be aware of our surroundings and see the signs before another tragedy happens.
Students in every grade have the mindset that they are invincible. To be totally honest, I've had that mindset for a lot of my life. I think "nothing bad could happen to me, I'm Megan Ferguson." You hear these horrible things happen in the media, but you hear it so often you almost get disconnected. It doesn't quite resonate that these are people's lives being lost for no good reason. Of course hearing the news of a school shooting is upsetting and horrifying, but it is to the point where it is unthinkable. It doesn't even come into my reality that this is something that could potentially happen to me.
May 4th, 1970. The National Guard opened fire on Kent State students killing 4 and injuring 9. Although this wasn't a fellow student shooting up a school, it is still a school shooting. Which happened at the university I attend now. I see the spots where 4 innocent students lost their lives and it all happened in my backyard.
This is now becoming a part of the world we live in. It has become so common that the procedures of what to do in a school shooting have been re-evaluated. Run, hide, fight; three words I hope to never hear in my life, but unfortunately it has become a reality to many across the nation.
On November 28th, a student on OSU's campus injured 11 of his fellow students by stabbing them. I am originally from a suburb in Columbus, so I have grown up around OSU and have multiple friends who attend the university. This hit way too close to home. I realized that any one of my friends could have been walking to class that morning and gotten stabbed. Just makes me think how grateful I am to be alive and healthy.
This ad did a great job of showing the importance of watching out for the signs, because it seemingly comes out of nowhere, but when you watch a second time, the signs were there all along. The video shows just how easily it is to miss the signs when you are wrapped up in what is going on in your life. Taking the time to analyze your surrounds could save your life and others.
