Art and I were walking around TJ Maxx when I got a call from our daughter, Tiffany. She told me about the shooting in Connecticut where 20 children and 6 adults had been killed. As I stood there talking to her, tears formed in my eyes.
Tif said that, instead of waiting in their cars to pick up their children parents walked out to the Illinois playground to talk to each other, needing to offer silent thoughts of prayers and sympathy to those parents who lost their children.
It brought back a memory of when I was teaching. Someone walked into a school north of us, shot and killed a boy and wounded several other children. I had a workshop that night and actually met a teacher who held the dying child in her arms earlier in the day. I was surprised she came to the workshop, but she said she needed to be with other teachers. I know she was still in shock.
Immediately after that all of our schools began implementing safety measures to protect our precious children. After school began, the doors were locked and visitors could only come through the front entrance door where there was a camera installed so the secretary could admit only those people she deemed safe. (Sadly, that did not work in Connecticut.)
We had practice drills with the children. Since my classroom door had a glass window you could just point a gun right through it. I had to tell my 1st grade class that if there was a warning issued on the intercom, they were to calmly walk to the sides of the door where they couldn't be seen and I would lock the door. One of my children asked how that would solve the problem because the bad person could just break the glass, turn the door knob and come in.
I can't believe I had to tell them that I would certainly hit the bad person's hand so they couldn't come in. They had other questions that I answered to the best of my ability.
They were still looking dubious. I finally told them that they were all so precious to me, that I was the grown up, stronger and would always protect them so they didn't have to worry.
Incredibly, they believed me and never showed any anxiety after that.
Presidents have been wounded and killed with guns. I've lost count of how many schools have lost children to guns. Like Mayor Bloomberg of New York, I ask again why we cannot have gun control?
In 1791, the second amendment which gave the right to bear arms was adopted. This was 221 years ago when bearing arms was necessary. Today, it is a hazard. I understand that the NRA (National Rifle Association) is a big reason why we are not able to get gun control passed.
How many children, how many innocent people must die before something is done?
I'm so frustrated, angry and more sad than I can possibly express.
Tif said that, instead of waiting in their cars to pick up their children parents walked out to the Illinois playground to talk to each other, needing to offer silent thoughts of prayers and sympathy to those parents who lost their children.
It brought back a memory of when I was teaching. Someone walked into a school north of us, shot and killed a boy and wounded several other children. I had a workshop that night and actually met a teacher who held the dying child in her arms earlier in the day. I was surprised she came to the workshop, but she said she needed to be with other teachers. I know she was still in shock.
Immediately after that all of our schools began implementing safety measures to protect our precious children. After school began, the doors were locked and visitors could only come through the front entrance door where there was a camera installed so the secretary could admit only those people she deemed safe. (Sadly, that did not work in Connecticut.)
I can't believe I had to tell them that I would certainly hit the bad person's hand so they couldn't come in. They had other questions that I answered to the best of my ability.
They were still looking dubious. I finally told them that they were all so precious to me, that I was the grown up, stronger and would always protect them so they didn't have to worry.
Incredibly, they believed me and never showed any anxiety after that.
Presidents have been wounded and killed with guns. I've lost count of how many schools have lost children to guns. Like Mayor Bloomberg of New York, I ask again why we cannot have gun control?
In 1791, the second amendment which gave the right to bear arms was adopted. This was 221 years ago when bearing arms was necessary. Today, it is a hazard. I understand that the NRA (National Rifle Association) is a big reason why we are not able to get gun control passed.
How many children, how many innocent people must die before something is done?
I'm so frustrated, angry and more sad than I can possibly express.
Thank you for sharing these details of how it was for you in school, Kay.
ReplyDeleteAs Thomas Paine already said, truly "These are times that try men's souls."
I am still reeling from yesterday's horror. The true horror is that it is happening on almost a weekly basis somewhere in our country. I used to duck and cover under my desk in a drill as a child to hide from some madman in another country with a bomb. Now our kids have to hide from our home grown mad men who live down the street.
ReplyDeleteI agree on need for gun control.
we all share this frustration and sorrow whether we are parents, teachers or just neighbors...
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans will never agree to gun control. They love the NRA too much. The fools!
ReplyDeleteI don't know why the government doesn't just go ahead & make murder against the law. Saves mucking around with gun laws. Simple.
ReplyDeleteI think I am still in shock over this. A kindergarten class shot and killed, it is just too much, too horrible to even think that someone would do this. Those precious, innocent, beautiful children. Praying for those families and for our country and our world.
ReplyDeleteI knew that your words would be sincere and meaningful. At one point I had a kindergarten class of 20 children. I can't begin to imagine losing the children in that awful and horrendous way. God bless and help the families and friends of all involved.
DeleteI too am horrified and filled with tears of grief over this. It's just awful and every parent puts themselves in the place of those dozens of families who will never again be truly happy. Automatic weapons are made to kill, and they did just that. Oh, I am so very sad today, too, Kay.
ReplyDelete"I'm so frustrated, angry and more sad than I can possibly express."....your words expressed what all of us are feeling. I heard the news just before I went to a pre-school Christmas program. I can't imagine what this tragedy will bring for those precious children going forward.
ReplyDeleteThen they come up with crazy ideas like arming (sometimes forcefully) teachers. If you want guns in a school, then convince another branch of government (police) to lend a hand and have an police officer be the head honcho of the school. 2 policemen, bulletproof windows, buzz-in doors with metal detectors and doors with hefty locks would of prevented any firearms attack. I'd pay extra taxes for that.
ReplyDeleteKay - Thank you for sharing your experience. You, like so many teachers, are the quite, calming angels for the little children. Even the training seems to be a bit rattling, especially discussing it with the children.
ReplyDeleteI am ever grateful for a school nurse and teacher, whom I called right after the OKC bombing. Not knowing what my 8-year-old son would hear and learn before I got to him, I asked them to please let him know that his grandparents in OKC were fine and ok.
Praying that this will stop. Guns will always be around and can be easily made. I think we need to improve mental health access. Connecticut has strict gun laws and that didn't stop this event.
A book called "One April Morning" was written to help children process the OKC bombing history. Now I worry about my new daughter-in-law teaching in a military town, with probable untreated PTSD within families.
DrumMajor
The gun laws didn't help in Connecticut because the guns belonged to the mother who was the first person he killed. I still believe we need to get rid of guns. Period.
DeleteWe must always tell the children they are safe. I am smiling through the tears at you doing it. Then we must look at each other and know we are not free in the land of the free while we are held hostage to fear by assault weapons with unlimited killing capacity.
ReplyDeleteJoining you in your frustration and emptiness, Kay
ReplyDeletewell said Kay, I think we will all remember what we were doing when we got this horrible news.
ReplyDeleteWhat shocking news this is. It brought back all the emotions we felt when 16 five year olds and their teacher were killed by a gunman in Dunblane, Scotland in 1996. Following that tragedy most primary schools in the UK, including the one I worked in, were fitted with lockable doors and gates and better security at the front entrance. Sadly, all of the locks and the laws in the world will not stop this sort of thing happening, but I think that stricter gun laws will help to minimise them.
ReplyDeleteI was at Longs today and saw that they had about a dozen magazines, Guns and Ammo and such which glorify gun culture. We value gun culture more than we do our children.
ReplyDeleteSigh...I wish we could have better gun control laws...but the lobby and individuals who want guns are strong..but why can't we limit these high capacity assault weapons.....
ReplyDeleteHere, here Kay. You of all people know what those teachers would have felt like. They would have felt responsible for all those little lives. My sister was talking ot me about it yesterday and she was sobbing. She has been teaching for 30 years and just was so affected by it.
ReplyDeleteSchools have so much on their plates as it is and now this heightened security to the point of madness must weigh heavily on all involved.
PS By the way, the coffee you sent is my all time favourite. Love it! Thank you so much again.
I'm so happy you liked it, Lilly. I love my Dirty Dancing CD too.
DeleteThis was truly a devastating day. I loved seeing the photo of you in your classroom. I have no doubt that you would have blocked that door any way you could if the situation called for it. I think this event every mother and every teacher very hard. We know how powerless we are in these situations. I find it interesting that the principal thrust herself at this killer in an attempt to stop the gunman, or so we read in the news accounts. We don't read of others doing this in mass shootings much. A teacher, a principal, a mother, a father would do this to protect the children they love.
ReplyDeleteWhat poignant memories you had Kay. These horrific events, I can't find the words. When the second amendment was written they had a musket that fired one ball. They did not foresee the kind of fire power that we have to contend with today.
ReplyDelete