Happy end of school. Happy end of school shootings for the time being as well.
For the next 10-12 weeks, our minds can be at rest that we won’t turn on the TV and see a headline about some small town that the majority of us have never heard of, where someone has killed (insert a number) of students and faculty for (insert a reason). There will be no more pictures of teary-eyed reunions between parents and the students they feared they lost. There will be no more lines and lines of students walking out of schools with their hands up. There will be no more threats of school attacks. Our minds can be at peace for the next 10-12 weeks.
For the next 10-12 weeks, the STOP act, or ‘The Student, Teachers, and Officers Preventing School Violence Act of 2018’ which passed both houses of Congress in March will begin to be implemented nationwide. According to ABC News,
“The bill authorizes $50 million per year for grants administered by the Department of Justice to fund training and other initiatives intended to enhance school safety, and $25 million annually for physical improvements such as metal detectors, stronger locks, and emergency notification and response technologies for schools to notify law enforcement of emergencies.”
For the next 10-12 weeks, my mom, a middle school teacher, and my brother, a high school student, will both be safe at home. I won’t have to worry that I will see the words, ‘(insert number here) Students Killed in Mass Shooting at Plano West Senior High School’ and worry that my brother is one of them. Especially considering that Plano West has already had two potential attacks this year; one involving a student who brought an unloaded gun to school, and another who was arrested by the FBI for plotting with terrorists abroad to attack not only the school but a local mall with bombs.
My brother recently told me that his friend, a senior, had teased that he wasn’t going to have to worry about his safety at school anymore because he was graduating and going to college. My brother has one more year in high school, and I have one more year of worrying on his behalf.
For the next 10-12 weeks, my mom will be preparing for another school year and another set of students. Although it is usually high schools that are targeted by school gun violence, it is still a “victory” that her school made it through the school year unscathed. In the meantime, I’ll be praying that the entrance remodels and new measures taken by the administrators at her school to keep all the moms, dads, kids, aunts, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas who work at her school safe for another year will work and keep my mom coming home.
For the next 10-12 weeks, legislators, school boards, communities, celebrities, parents, students, and victims will discuss how to keep our schools safe, but for the next 10-12 weeks, we can have the peace of mind that no one will fall victim to another school shooting.
Happy summer.
