Principal’s Eye View

COVID-19 and its variants have dominated our news, our minds, our mental health and just about every decision many of us have to make on a daily basis. I agree that COVID needs to dominate our lives. There are still many questions about how we live with COVID as it seems like it will be with us for the foreseeable future. Still, having such laser like focus can divert our gaze from other issues impacting our worlds that we should find time to acknowledge, discuss and act on.

On November 30th 4 students were killed and others injured in a school shooting in Oxford, Michigan. We have grown desensitized to school shootings over the years and that is disheartening and, maybe, not at all surprising. It has become all too common for our leaders to share their sympathies for the victims of these senseless and infuriating tragedies while simultaneously sitting on their collective hands instead of trying to do something about it. School shootings, along with shootings at other should be safe locations — clubs, concerts, malls — should be pragmatic ones that can be resolved, but instead have become political problems and we know what happens with political problems.

The shooting in Oxford was the 31st school shooting of 2021. That number should alarm us all given the inconsistent, truncated school schedule of 2021 due to COVID. I share this number today not to frighten anyone, but to share a fact that has gone, largely, unnoticed as we instead fight about vaccinations and masks. I don’t ever expect us all to agree and, frankly, universal agreement can be boring. Still, I would think we could all agree that all our schools should be safe places. We are dealing with a sharp rise in mental health issues throughout schools in our country. Perhaps, maybe just perhaps, we can reduce mental health issues if we can all band together to figure a way to eliminate school shootings.

November 30th was a tragedy. I have no doubt that people will be held accountable for this avoidable, horrific act. I also know that no amount of accountability will bring back those who lost their lives in their school and that no measure of accountability will help the survivors feel safe again in their school. We need to do more. Talk to your children and report every alarming or concerning situation. Make sure your children, and you, know that informing the authorities is not a betrayal, but a heroic act. Lives depend on our trust and faith in each other. Most importantly, lets never stop talking about school shootings. Lets never stop paying close attention to what is happening around the country. I am certain we can focus on more than one thing at one time.