Last Friday one of my kindergarten students brought a loaded handgun to the school building.
Thankfully the staff was able to confiscate the weapon upon arrival and he didn't make it past the office.
I know this kid, I have no idea what was going through his little developing brain when he decided to take his dad's gun to school.
I'm doubtful it was with the intention to harm, but nonetheless, a 6 year old with a loaded weapon with no violent intentions is equally as frightening as an older student with intentions.
I keep thinking about our active shooter training, I think about our lock down drills, and then I think about how this kid was minutes away from pointing a loaded weapon either at me or at classmates, with or without the intention of pulling the trigger, people's lives in the hands of a 6 year old who isn't cognitively able to comprehend the magnitude of the situation and the weapon he held. The thing could have gone off on his own leg.
Then I think about the child's father, the kind of man, or rather kid himself, who not only keeps a loaded firearm in his home but in a place that is accessible to his kindergarten child.
And then I think about the gap between us, our lifestyles, our day to day, the things we stress about, the things we deal with. Guns to me are a fantasy object, they are only in video games and movies I talk about guns so lightly. 31 years of life and I've never had a gun pointed at me. I've gone shooting with friends maybe twice in my life.
I think about how scary the thought of a kindergartner pointing a gun at my class or me seems.
Then I think about how all of those American citizens must have felt while a police officer sworn to protect and serve them must have felt moments before the officer decided to play judge, jury, and executioner moving the index finger fractions of an inch to end a citizen's life forever.
What the fuck are we doing with guns? Why do these things exist? Or rather why are their so many and why are they so accessible?
Too many strangers have complete control over who gets to exist and who doesn't...in an instant.
I think about that college girl at Kent with the semiautomatic weapon on twitter showing off all her weapons...how foolish, how absolutely foolish...why, what are we doing?
Treating this death objects like it is a political game, like it is funny to wield them in public, like a stranger couldn't take it from you, like it couldn't misfire, like it isn't the instant changer of lives.
And for what?
What does it profit for Americans to own one of these? What can a gun do that bear mace couldn't?
Other than the complete and utter finality of one over the other?
What kind of person would choose ending a life over incapacitating until arrest?
I could have very easily not be here today to type these thoughts.
Even Monday when I return to work, What is stopping another child from bringing a weapon undetected into the building?
WHY THE FUCK is being a teacher in a public American school so dangerous? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY? To know the stats, to hear the students fears, and the survivors stories...and to do NOTHING...to give me an active shooter video and continue living EXACTLY the same way...
I think the saddest thing is knowing that if I am ever shot dead in my classroom nothing will change. My life or rather my death will be in vein...no laws or government change will happen in order to keep future classes like mine and teachers like me safe. My last thought will be how useless my death will be to protect future lives in a school in America.
It makes me think about all the teachers of the past the ones who died doing what they loved, but without any expectations of the risk, and for what? thoughts and prayers...and this fucked up country moves forward adding another statistic and pushing on.
Dave Sanders - Columbine
Barry Grunow - Lake Worth Middle School
Eugene Segro - Red Lion Area Junior High School
Joyce Gregory - Dover, Tennessee
Neva Jane Wynkoop-Rogers - Red Lake Senior High School
Gary Seale - Campbell County High School
Mary Alicia Shanks - Essex Elementary School
John Alfred Klang - Weston High School
Vicki Kaspar - Millard South High School
Dale Regan - Episcopal School of Jacksonville
Rachel D'Avino - Sandy Hook Elementary
Dawn Hochsprung - Sandy Hook Elementary
Anne Marie Murphy - Sandy Hook Elementary
Lauren Rousseau - Sandy Hook Elementary
Mary Sherlach - Sandy Hook Elementary
Victoria Leigh Soto - Sandy Hook Elementary
Michael Landsberry - Sparks Middle School
Karen Elaine Smith - North Park Elementary School
Scott Beigel - Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
Aaron Feis - Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
Chris Hixon - Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
Glenda Ann Perkins - Santa Fe High School
Cynthia Tisdale - Santa Fe High School
These are the school staff members who have been murdered at work since Columbine. This isn't even the count of a single student, and this isn't a count of the college, and higher education professors who have been murdered.
Each and every name a life lost while part of the education system and each and everyone of their deaths has had no effect on this countries gun laws.
if I am ever shot dead in my classroom nothing will change. My life or rather my death will be in vein...no laws or government change will happen in order to keep future classes like mine and teachers like me safe.
Thoughts and Prayers.
Peter Manos - In My Head
Thankfully the staff was able to confiscate the weapon upon arrival and he didn't make it past the office.
I know this kid, I have no idea what was going through his little developing brain when he decided to take his dad's gun to school.
I'm doubtful it was with the intention to harm, but nonetheless, a 6 year old with a loaded weapon with no violent intentions is equally as frightening as an older student with intentions.
I keep thinking about our active shooter training, I think about our lock down drills, and then I think about how this kid was minutes away from pointing a loaded weapon either at me or at classmates, with or without the intention of pulling the trigger, people's lives in the hands of a 6 year old who isn't cognitively able to comprehend the magnitude of the situation and the weapon he held. The thing could have gone off on his own leg.
Then I think about the child's father, the kind of man, or rather kid himself, who not only keeps a loaded firearm in his home but in a place that is accessible to his kindergarten child.
And then I think about the gap between us, our lifestyles, our day to day, the things we stress about, the things we deal with. Guns to me are a fantasy object, they are only in video games and movies I talk about guns so lightly. 31 years of life and I've never had a gun pointed at me. I've gone shooting with friends maybe twice in my life.
I think about how scary the thought of a kindergartner pointing a gun at my class or me seems.
Then I think about how all of those American citizens must have felt while a police officer sworn to protect and serve them must have felt moments before the officer decided to play judge, jury, and executioner moving the index finger fractions of an inch to end a citizen's life forever.
What the fuck are we doing with guns? Why do these things exist? Or rather why are their so many and why are they so accessible?
Too many strangers have complete control over who gets to exist and who doesn't...in an instant.
I think about that college girl at Kent with the semiautomatic weapon on twitter showing off all her weapons...how foolish, how absolutely foolish...why, what are we doing?
Treating this death objects like it is a political game, like it is funny to wield them in public, like a stranger couldn't take it from you, like it couldn't misfire, like it isn't the instant changer of lives.
And for what?
What does it profit for Americans to own one of these? What can a gun do that bear mace couldn't?
Other than the complete and utter finality of one over the other?
What kind of person would choose ending a life over incapacitating until arrest?
I could have very easily not be here today to type these thoughts.
Even Monday when I return to work, What is stopping another child from bringing a weapon undetected into the building?
WHY THE FUCK is being a teacher in a public American school so dangerous? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY? To know the stats, to hear the students fears, and the survivors stories...and to do NOTHING...to give me an active shooter video and continue living EXACTLY the same way...
I think the saddest thing is knowing that if I am ever shot dead in my classroom nothing will change. My life or rather my death will be in vein...no laws or government change will happen in order to keep future classes like mine and teachers like me safe. My last thought will be how useless my death will be to protect future lives in a school in America.
It makes me think about all the teachers of the past the ones who died doing what they loved, but without any expectations of the risk, and for what? thoughts and prayers...and this fucked up country moves forward adding another statistic and pushing on.
Dave Sanders - Columbine
Barry Grunow - Lake Worth Middle School
Eugene Segro - Red Lion Area Junior High School
Joyce Gregory - Dover, Tennessee
Neva Jane Wynkoop-Rogers - Red Lake Senior High School
Gary Seale - Campbell County High School
Mary Alicia Shanks - Essex Elementary School
John Alfred Klang - Weston High School
Vicki Kaspar - Millard South High School
Dale Regan - Episcopal School of Jacksonville
Rachel D'Avino - Sandy Hook Elementary
Dawn Hochsprung - Sandy Hook Elementary
Anne Marie Murphy - Sandy Hook Elementary
Lauren Rousseau - Sandy Hook Elementary
Mary Sherlach - Sandy Hook Elementary
Victoria Leigh Soto - Sandy Hook Elementary
Michael Landsberry - Sparks Middle School
Karen Elaine Smith - North Park Elementary School
Scott Beigel - Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
Aaron Feis - Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
Chris Hixon - Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
Glenda Ann Perkins - Santa Fe High School
Cynthia Tisdale - Santa Fe High School
These are the school staff members who have been murdered at work since Columbine. This isn't even the count of a single student, and this isn't a count of the college, and higher education professors who have been murdered.
Each and every name a life lost while part of the education system and each and everyone of their deaths has had no effect on this countries gun laws.
if I am ever shot dead in my classroom nothing will change. My life or rather my death will be in vein...no laws or government change will happen in order to keep future classes like mine and teachers like me safe.
Thoughts and Prayers.
Peter Manos - In My Head