Forty seven school shootings so far this year. Forty seven. Twenty six of those resulted in some sort of injury or fatality. That leaves 21 shootings that were suicidal, "accidental," or did not result in an injury. How many of these 47 shootings have you heard about? Only a handful, I'm sure. Even though you've only heard about a few, it still makes you think, "Am I safe at my school?" As a college student, I don't want to be worrying about my safety all day, every day. I'm here for greater reasons. So why do we live in a world where students can't go to school without having to worry about their safety?
Take the focus off of colleges for a second. What about the elementary schools that have had to take extra precautions within the past couple of years just to keep their kids as safe as possible? I can't imagine being a parents and having to worry about sending my kid off to school with the fear that something could happen to them. Obviously we all know about the Sandy Hook shooting from 2012, but what about the elementary school shootings from this year? There have been more shootings this year in elementary schools than you can count on one hand. And I'm only talking about the ones resulting in injury or death. So maybe it took a shooting like Sandy Hook to raise awareness on the safety that should be provided to students in school, but if the students are being "protected," why is this still happening? Why are we having to see horrifying stories like this constantly in the news?
We've gotten to a point where the shock has worn off at the sound of "another school shooting." Shouldn't we be horrified and devastated every time we hear about it? But it has become all too common for us to be shocked every single time a shooting happens. They have even become so common, that most of them barely make local news, much less national news. How many of the 47 school shootings from this year have you heard about? Probably only enough to count on one hand. Sometimes the media can overdo news reports and make something seem way more extreme than it is but in this case, it is quite the opposite. We need to be hearing the news reports, we need to know how common this is.
We're in a time now where we have to worry about the dangers of a shooting on a college campus or even an elementary school campus. Kids can't go to school without being "in danger," and parents of young kids have to knowingly send their kids to school every day with the idea that it could happen to them. Don't let these headlines of a school shooting just be another story you hear about on the news. Use these stories to help keep every campus safe, whether it's a college campus or an elementary school one.
