Newport News, Virginia
I was typing in this blog several months ago after I had read the news story about the six-year-old child in Virginia who brought a gun to school and shot his teacher. (She was injured, but survived.)
I wrote that I would never want to be a teacher now, because of these types of crazy incidents.
I was feeling it at the time, but I thought about it later and concluded, 'That was kind of stupid of me to say.' I don't have a teaching degree - ! It made no sense.
Also school shootings are statistically rare.
Statistically rare.
But yet it seems like it happens all the time, because we hear it in the news and feel like, "Oh no, not again" -- and also, before Columbine, this type of incident was just about unheard-of.
It was a sort of trick that my brain and emotions used, to try to process the horrifying and unbelievable report of a six-year-old perpetrating such a thing.
The mind races through a bunch of stops - what kind of parents does he have? - why did they let him have a gun? - why didn't the school authorities take the gun away from the child and send him home? - and call the cops? - how could a first-grader be a criminal? - is he an abused or neglected child and so he is acting out? - etc.
Puzzlement and shock and horror collide with each other in your awareness and turn into a sort of mini-tornado of rage.
me: "I'm never going to teach school!!"
schools: "Okay."
LOL
I was thinking, Why did I stop making sense after reading that? It's like -- the mind tries to handle it and distance yourself from it. And you can't do anything about it and so you feel frustrated on top of horrified.
Then I saws the lead-in sentence of a news story online that said, "The Jan. 6 shooting of Zwerner at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News stunned the country..."
There's the word: stunned. I was stunned by the information.
Two points in the follow-up news reports on that topic that made me the most angry:
One -- the parents are insisting "The gun was secured" -- liars! -- if it had been secured, the child would not have had the gun.
And Two -- teachers said they had reported that he had a gun -- the administrators they reported this to, either did nothing, or -- one of them smarted back, "Oh well he has little pockets."
Administrators who are not trying to listen to what the teacher tells them and then form a plan of action, instead they are trying to battle back against the words that the teacher said. Just trying to get rid of the person and the information they are bringing.
Somebody who does that is not fit to "administer" anything.
Unbelievably incompetent.
_______________________________
------------------- [excerpts / March 30 news story] ----------
Hundreds of school children, teens and parents gathered at the Tennessee Capitol last Thursday to protest for tighter gun control laws three days after a shooter opened fire at The Covenant School, killing three children and three adults.
At the Capitol, protestors lined the hallways and chanted at the state's Republican-dominated Legislature as they filed in to begin taking up bills for the first time since the shooting.
Chants of "Save our children!" echoed in the hallways between the state Senate and House chambers, with protesters setting up shop inside and outside the Capitol. Some silently filled the Senate chamber's gallery, including children who held signs reading "I'm nine" -- a reference to the age of the three kids who died in the attack.
...Thursday's rally was led by Metro Nashville Public Schools Parents, reported CBS affiliate WTVF, and those attending were asked to wear orange.
In Washington D.C., Republicans showed little appetite to pass more gun restrictions. Representative Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican who represents the Knoxville area, said Congress isn't going to fix the problems that led to Monday's shooting.
[March 30, 2023 - CBS news]
at left: Representative Tim Burchett
-30-
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