On Thursday, November 14, 2019, Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, was added to a list that appears to have no end in sight. At least no end that ensures more reasonable protections for children who are compelled to go to school. There seems to be no end to the failure of courage and leadership that adults continue to show on this issue that fails our children regularly.
The Second Amendment is waved in the face of grieving parents. Imagine that for just a moment. The most natural law is broken, the one that we all accept that we are going to outlive our children. As a dad, I do not allow myself to go there. To imagine that possibility that my own children would die before I do is literally unthinkable. So if that were to happen, and those opposed to more regulation of the gun industry in the United States (the only industrialized nation where this continues to be a consistent problem) were to respond with their empty sympathy while touting the Bill of Rights, I'm not sure how I would react.
We cannot say that this won't happen in Vermont, because it almost did. In February of 2018, a tragedy was averted at Fair Haven Union High School because of the courage of a young woman who, at the time, was not able to legally vote. My in-state colleague Brooke Olsen-Farrell, who is the Superintendent of Schools of the Slate Valley Unified School District, which includes Fair Haven Union High School, told me at a recent conference, "I didn't go to school for this." As educators, we accept that this is a part of our role. Our children must feel safe if they are to be educated. We simply can't be expected to do it with our hands tied behind our backs.
Nicholas Kristof, in the New York Times, shares some sobering statistics when it comes to gun deaths, and it's broken down by state. For households that are estimated to have guns, Vermont is fifth highest in the nation, behind only Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Mississippi. We have also earned an "F" along with twenty-five other states, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence when assessed on gun regulation. So we have one of the highest estimated number of households to have guns in the entire country, and our control of guns ranks in the bottom half. Not a great combination.
In a few short weeks, the seventh anniversary of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary will be upon us. I was off-campus that day, and as my phone began buzzing with the news, I will share that I selfishly was grateful to look in the rearview mirror to see my own two children securely buckled into their car seats. The following Monday, when a Williston Police Officer was greeting students at their elementary school, I choked up saying thank you to him for being there.
As a Superintendent of Schools, I've dealt with my share of safety incidents. Two were hoaxes, and in one situation, a person, who had allegedly robbed the Vermont State Credit Union, lost his life on the grounds of the school. I've been present to hear the Superintendent of Schools from Sandy Hook in Newtown, CT, speak. I've listened to the pain in Dr. Erardi's voice when he talked about what it was like on that December day in 2012.
When is the reality of the murder of our students going to trump the potential to have to use a weapon to defend oneself? When can we look at this as a public health crisis, and not something that needs thoughts and prayers? When can we expect our leaders to lead?
I never want to be in a position to have to explain to a family that we could not protect their children when they came to school. And I never want to be in a position to hear from my own children's superintendent that she could not protect them.
Will you please help?
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| Photo courtesy of thinkingthirty.com |
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