When School Shootings Hit Too Close To Home
I changed into tennis shoes that morning, in case I needed to run
With mass shootings becoming the new normal in life, we can easily forget the idea of fear they come with. Sure, we have a general sense of fear and have a "Omg that is so scary" moment. But, we really don't think about what it means to live in fear of a school shooting till it hits you. Like an emotional bullet terrorizing you.
Mysterious and strange Facebook post started being posted by a classmate of mine. At first, what seemed to a simple rant, turned into the plot of a horror film. Long, in-depth message of hate and revealing people came were written all over his face book. In didn't take long for words to spread, people to start sharing his post and eventually, law enforcement got involved.
However, that did not stop. The post continued, this time with the student calling out our campus police saying how they were fools. And as post became longer and more twisted, a deeper sense of fear grew across the community.
True. My school has had bomb threats. Also true, an old friend of mine once wrote a hit list with students names on it. But reading these post, these twisted and disturbing thoughts brought more fear and idea of violence to me that I have ever thought.You know a school shooting is possible.Its the brutal reality we face as students nowadays. But we don't think its ever going to happen. At least not to us.
The police got involved pretty quickly and after investigation they concluded that the person was not a current threat towards the public and he was just having a mental breakdown. However, the events of that weekend ( even with it being called no longer a threat ) brought real fear to everyone around us. It brought the reality of the possibility of a school shooting.
Its disgusting how today we have to be in fear of going to school. I remember back in middle school when the biggest fear was your school bully on the bus. Today we have to worry about someone coming to campus with a gun.
Nobody should have to miss school in fear of losing their life. Nobody should have to get marked absent because they wanted to be safe. It is not fair to the children of today to have to think twice about the noises they hear outside of their class room. The idea of a school shooting today is no longer just a possibility for students, but more of a reality of when its going to happen.