Edition Three: School Shootings

Welcome to Edition Three

of

This is Life and Events

Sanely Insane

Welcome again Dear Readers,    

    In light of recent events around the Hampton Roads area, dear reader, we have to discuss a topic that is absolutely traumatizing and horrifying to even fathom, yet alone, discuss and bring back to life.  Recently, there was a shooting at school, no fatalities, around the Hampton Roads area.  Hell, there were two shooting in the last twenty-four hours in the Hampton Roads area.  I am not going to present any ideas for prevention of these heartless crimes but we do need to discuss them and maybe we can create a dialogue about them that could possibly lead to some sort of push in the right direction towards change.  Per edweek.org, there have been sixteen school shooting this year as of this writing (9-26-21).  That puts us right on the cusp of two per month, two too many.  Sixteen school shooting that involved injuries or the loss of human life, loss of life of adults, or loss of life of children, or loss of life with only the perpetrator.  The point is, loss of life.  Life is precious, even if someone is so mentally ill that their medication to curb the internal suffering of their disorder was to take guns into a school and attempt to injure or kill as many people as possible, children or adults, at that point, the shooter does not care which one it is as long as there are hot, explosion propelled bullets flying through the air, crashing into flash and bone, making a terribly graphic scene and increasing the odds of taking life from someone that was not ready to forfeit the gift of all gifts.  

    During the sixteen school shooting, six people were killed.  Six lives ended in the middle of the United States School System where all they were trying to do was teach or learn so they could move onto the next level of life and get a job, get married, have kids, buy a house, get a dog, and enjoy the gift of life we have all been given.  Some of you, even thought I hope not, are doing the math.  Sixteen school shooting and only six deaths, that equates to only one third of a human being, not even an entire human being killed.  If you thought that, please fine the X button at the top right of your screen and kindly show yourself out and find the nearest mental health facility, check yourself in (be sure you hand over your shoestrings), and enjoy your stay.  Now, the rest of you, the logical ones still reading, that .375 lives loss per school shooting is a blessing in disguise.  Generally, you would expect at least one person dead at each school shooting.  After all, schools are packed with many different types of children, ranging from four years old to eighteen years old.  In the moment of panic, the moment of fight or flight (or hide), it is often times very difficult to make a solid decision immediately upon the incident beginning, stick to it, and mentally feel comfortable with the decision that you have made.  No pressure, its just your life on the line.  The life that you were graced with, the life that you have yet to even begin to bloom into, the life that could quite possibly change the course of humanity as we know it.

    The sixteen school shootings that have taken place in 2021 have also involved eighteen injured humans.  Eighteen people that treated that day as just another day.  Get it done and get home for some R&R or finish a project at the house, or do homework to better themselves.  Keep in mind we are still waiting for deaths/Injury numbers to come in from a shooting that took place in Pennsylvania.  When the shooting happened at Heritage Highschool in Newport News, Virginia, my stomach dropped to the floor.  Just days before, Kecoughtan Highschool went on lockdown so that the Hampton Police could enter the school, apprehend a couple of students that had been recorded the day before firing off weapons that they had at school with them.  The police released a statement, Chief Talbot specifically, and stated that there no weapons on school grounds when the lockdown occurred and the decision to go in at that time with a school loaded full of children just trying to learn and grow was the appropriate action.  That said, then the authorities and politicians decided to lie to everyone involved by saying 'nothing more than a small, folding pocket knife was removed for the school that day' when in fact (and with proof), two loaded firearms were removed from two students that had them in their backpacks in their classrooms filled with twenty-five to thirty-five kids.  

    The proximity of this event, the way it hit home with me, made me sick to my stomach.  It was not long after the incident began when I decided to go and get my child from his school, even though his school was in a different city than the city that had the active school shooting taking place.  In that moment, I was ready to fight for my child's right to flight.  If things are going to fly off the hinges of control, I am going to grab whatever I can (my child) and I am going to control it to the best of my ability.  

    Fight, flight, or hide.  This is what we are taught, whether we are out to eat or roaming around Target, sitting in class or running behind and speed walking to class, or sitting in church worshiping which ever entity you choose to worship.  Do you have a plan in place?  Have you decided how you would handle certain situations if they occurred?  Do you change where you sit just so you may have an advantage if something horrible were to happen?  How have you adjusted your life to give you the best possible percentage chance to survive a random shooting (Mass shooting or School shooting)?  

    The final statistics for 2021 school shootings, of the six people killed in schools, four were students and two were adults.  I'm not going to both googling how many children attend school everyday in the United States, and four may seem like a very low number, but four is four too many.  The number should be zero.  Absolutely zero lives lost in schools involving school shootings.  That really isn't too much to ask.  Four children and two adults killed as they just went about their day, trying to learn or trying to teach, six lives that ended doing something that is as risky as picking up a sheet of paper.  We, as a society, must make something happen to ensure the safety of our children and staff when they are going to, attending, and coming home from school, as far as guns are concerned.  Accidents happen, kids get hit by cars, adults have medical emergencies, but getting shot in a school, that is beyond unacceptable.

    Take a nice long time, think this over, and try to find a way to disagree.  Please.  I know the sad fact that it is impossible to fight crazy, I know it is hard to maintain self-control when anger enters the equation, but there must be something can do about this, there has to be a reasonable way to address this problem and ensure the safety of our children and faculty.        

    Thank you for reading.  Please visit the links below, provide some feedback, comment, discuss, anything.   Help me shine some light on this issue so that some actual change can happen instead of just having crooked politicians talk about while they have their pockets padded when no one is looking.

https://link.edgepilot.com/s/1c778c8c/3fnOCVEqY0qCyB58o9BaLg?u=https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-this-year-how-many-and-where/2021/03

-JAB / This has been Life and Events - Sanely Insane and I will be your host and narrator for as long as you continue to come through.  

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