As humans, after we witness a tragic event, we initially feel nothing. No one can process the reality of what happened, who did what, or why it happened. Being able to process such event such as a school shooting takes hours. As time goes on and stories develop, facts, rumors, theories, and reality start to set in.

After a school shooting in particular, especially one performed by a minor, there are many things to be taken into consideration. Why has there been a rise in school shootings over the past 10 years? Who is to blame? Are there variables we can control? What is the risk of implementing some serious solutions? These are all questions to be considered after a tragedy like the one at Freeman High School in Washington.

There are questions of mental health, bullying, access to guns, and warning signs. Should we have stricter gun control? Greater police presence in school? Increased monitoring of internet use? Like many debates, there are no clear-cut answers. But something needs to be done- since the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012, there have been 142 shootings (according to the Law Center of Protection of Gun Violence (October 2015)).

The most tragic elements of this story are the warning signs. Classmates say the student brought notes to school where he wrote that he was going to do “something stupid”. He had talked to a school counselor on more than one occasion about having suicidal thoughts. He was very interested in school shootings and had posted many videos online in which he was firing guns at friends pretending to be police.

Students knew he was interested in guns. It’s not easy to speak up about something like this. There is the fear that you are wrong about a situation or blowing it out of proportion. However, I see this information as crucial to the case and maybe a cry for help from Sharpe.

Sharpe knew the combination to his father’s gun safe. He took two guns from it and took those guns to school in a backpack. While it is not the parents’ fault, and we do not know the details, trusting a kid of any age with the password to a gun safe is always a risk.

Sharpe has said that he wanted to show people the consequences when they bully others. Nobody deserves to be bullied. But no one deserves to have their life taken from them so suddenly and unfairly. Perhaps a more intensive intervention could have helped alleviate the pain Sharpe felt that drove him to act the way he did.

It’s easy to assume the school was oblivious and carless in dealing with Sharpe. It will take time to see if everything possible was done to avert this tragedy. In this modern day, being “too cautious” should not be negatively viewed. Students and citizens of any age should not think they are attacking someone or crossing the line if they report behavior. Reporting Sharpe’s troublesome behavior could have gotten him the help he wanted, and saved a life.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/there-have-been-45-mass-shootings-in-the-us-this-year-a6676156.html

https://everytownresearch.org/reports/analysis-of-school-shootings/

http://harvardpolitics.com/special_features/gun.html