Tragedy Writes Itself

We had a local school shooting this week. A seventeen-year-old teen opened fire in a school cafeteria and gunned down five students. Three of the boys who were life-flighted to the hospital have died. Two others are recovering. Had a brave teacher not chased the student out of the building--while being shot at--there may have been more fatalities. Soon after the teen fled the scene he sat alone on the side of the road waiting to be picked up by the police.

When I heard the local news, I burst into tears. As a parent, it's natural to fear that your child might experience something similar. And as a former teacher in a school district where drills were regular and necessary, I flashed back to the words code red, to locking the classroom door, and barricading the students beneath a table and away from windows.


In the aftermath of this tragedy there were dozens of TEEN interviews and I listened closely to the words and phrases those students used:


"It didn't feel real. It was like watching a movie."


"It sounded like firecrackers going off inside the building."

"I thought some kid had popped open a bag of chips."

"This is like a nightmare that you can't wake up from."

"I saw people running and screaming. But it didn't hit me until I heard the announcement that we were on lock down."

"He (the shooter) used to be a friend up until eighth grade. But then he went through a goth period and kept to himself."

"He (the shooter) was a nice kid. Very quiet. But you could always see sadness behind his eyes."




Tragedy is tragedy whether you're an adult or a teen. People go on auto-pilot until they can actually process what's going on. Some break down immediately but others require more time before it all sinks in.

And afterward we attempt to connect all the dots. But kids look to adults for how to handle things. What do they hearing us saying?

Here's some of what I heard from ADULTS: 

"That kid came from a broken home."

"He needs to fry for what he's done."

"Are we supposed to turn a blind eye and not judge him just because he had a horrible family life?"

"Maybe he was mentally unstable or depressed or bullied."

"Maybe all he needed was a friend."

What made this young man decide to ruin his life and the lives of others in THIS brutal way? What small actions could he and others have taken to help create a different outcome?

Totally makes me think of the book by Jay Asher called Thirteen Reasons Why. Small steps might make a difference. MIGHT.

So teach the child in your life to GIVE on a daily basis. A smile, a compliment, a helping hand, or their time. GIVING just might bridge the delicate line between life and death.


 And no, that 's not the complete answer. There are always others factors involved that make up the whole of a person (state of mind, mental health, family life, environment), BUT it's a start. And a start is all we've got.


(images, book)