Here I am yet again, writing about another act of senseless violence in our schools. This time at an Amish school in Pennsylvania. A 32-year old man walked into a one-room school house this morning armed with an assault rifle and a handgun. He proceeded to ask all students to line up at the chalkboard. He then (according to a news report I just watched) tied the legs of some students together while they were facing the chalkboard. He let the male students go and kept the female students. He also released a pregnant woman and two assistant teachers who had infants with them. The teacher was also able to get out and she quickly called the police.
The man brought with him boards, two-by-six, and barricaded all entrances and exits to the school with these. When police arrived the man had a clear view of all of them and eventually told police if they did not clear the area he was going to start shooting in ten seconds. It was shortly after this that police heard the first gunshots, in rapid succession, and they stormed the school using the windows because the doors were barricaded.
When the smoke cleared the suspect was dead and three little girls between the ages of six and 13 were dead. The coroner is now stating that six people were killed; however the news report stated three had been killed. All were shot execution style in the head.
I ask again, what can we do as a country to fight this school violence battle? This was Amish country for goodness sake! These are a peaceful people who live good, honest lives. I have visited this area and have relatives near there. It is a beautiful area of Pennsylvania and now it has become the latest school to fall prey to violence.
Parents have lost their children; a six year old was killed, shot in the head! What are we going to do about this? I ask because it seems lately I have blogged about all of these school shootings and no one seems affected. What is wrong with the world when our children aren’t safe at public schools? It doesn’t seem to matter, big schools or small one-room schoolhouses. They have all seen violence.
I sit here with tears streaming down my face wondering if my beloved occupation of teaching and the tremendous children we teach will ever be safe again. I cry for the parents who felt safe sending their child to school only to find that they had been shot and killed. I cry because schools truly aren’t safe anymore, and if schools aren’t safe, where does that leave us?
How can we make our schools safe again? I posed a question in my previous blog about having stricter gun control laws. Do I think if we had fewer guns on the street we would be a safer country? Heck yes I do. Do I think something needs to be done to avoid placing these guns in these killer’s hands? Heck yes I do.
But what can be done? What can we do to make our schools safe again?