Dear Parents,
Today your children will ask me about another school shooting. They will want to know if our school is safe. They will want to know if it could happen here. They will want to know if I can keep them safe.
I don’t know what to say.
I know most of the doors at my school are locked. I know our school is small, and there are security cameras in the hall. I also know many doors have glass windows on them, which bullets could easily pass through. I know there are no closets big enough to hide us.
I don’t know what to say.
I have more training than most teachers on school safety, as I previously worked for the Minnesota School Safety Center. I know how to conduct school safety assessments. I know how and when to conduct a threat assessment.
But the Florida school did that. They identified the student as a threat, and removed him from the school. Teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were trained in lockdowns, and they did exactly what they were supposed to do. They did that, and still 17 innocent people died.
I don’t know what to say.
Would I die for my students? Would I sacrifice my life and leave my own children without their mother? Many teachers have made this choice. Is this what it means now to be a teacher?
I don’t feel prepared to handle these conversations with your children, let alone lead them through a situation this terrifying. I don’t have military or police training. I’ve never even held a gun. Why does being a teacher now mean putting myself at such risk?
Our country is so divided, yet it’s hard to understand how this issue is still one of contention. How can people argue access to these types of weapons makes us safer, when evidence from every other country points to the contrary?
Every teacher and child in this country faces this risk, so certain individuals can retain their “rights.” What about our rights? Is this really how we want to live?
Yesterday was Valentines Day. My own two children left for school with Valentines boxes they’d spent hours creating. They left home with treats for their teacher and classmates. They left in bright red shirts, with palpable excitement, ready to enjoy a class party. Never did I think yesterday could have been their last day.
I sent them to school trusting they would be safe. Trusting they would be protected by their school and their teacher. Their teachers certainly didn’t become teachers to carry this responsibility. No teacher does. I wonder if their teachers are feeling the same way today.
Parents, today your students will come to me with questions. I will try my best to respond. I will tell them what I know, and what I don’t. I wish had more answers, but I have too many questions.
Will we stay safe? Will it happen again? Is this the best our country can do?
I don’t know what to say.
I worked for 11 years as a threat assessment professional for the Postal Service in the 90’s when it was synonymous with mass homicides (“going postal”). I changed careers to become a teacher. I have prevented many workplace mass murders and I have been to a number of them. I cannot begin to describe how horrific they are. No one can know until they have experienced it. I do know that the majority of mass shootings are preventable. Law enforcement is stuck in the single-minded idea of looking at whether a crime has been committed, not preventing crimes. Until that changes nothing will be different. There are so many things that they can do if they were willing. I would not be surprised if I end up surviving what was a dangerous career in my past only to die in my classroom as a result of incompetence.
I am a pharmacist. I adopted a son at 22 months of age. The first 2 months he was home, he was fine and then his behavior significantly changed. I spent years trying to help him with what I learned in school to no avail. I finally found answers.
On the heels of what, I sadly have to say, is the *latest* school shooting, please take a good hard look at what you are eating and drinking and feeding your kids.
Years ago we grew, raised, and tended to our own food. We knew whether the soil was rich with nutrients. We knew whether or not we put chemicals on our food to deter bugs and weeds, or in it to fatten it up. We knew when it was ripe and ready to be picked, or grown and ready to be slaughtered. Sugary drinks and desserts were a rare treat, but even then, they were made from plants and animals.
The “food” we consume today…and worse…feed our children…our babies, lack nutrients or are laden with man-made chemicals or residual natural and man-made toxins when we grab boxes and packages from the center aisles or even “shop the perimeter”….or when we sit in a line of cars breathing exhaust to grab a sack to take home.
For what? To save time? To save money because we had a coupon?
Our bodies don’t recognize these substances and they fight back. Our immune systems send in troops to try to attack these foreign invaders and we experience what we call symptoms. Symptoms that we call rashes, weight gain, sleep disturbances, mood changes, high blood pressure, diverticulitis, food allergies, ADHD… And then we inhale or inject more unrecognized toxic invaders while continuing our ingestion of them, and we experience symptoms we call asthma, eczema, diabetes, congestive heart failure, IBS/IBD, Crohn’s, cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Autism, and other mental illness.
Stop consuming substances that your body doesn’t recognize as human fuel. Stop giving it to your babies. Stop fueling the toxins already in your body. Stop trying to antidote them with another man-made substance.
One of my prayers when we were going through infertility was for The Lord to “open wide my horizons”. He gave me a son that developed symptoms of mental illness. He burdened me with different symptoms, but He also gave me answers. We have been making positive progress.
There are natural toxins that most people, even in health care, don’t consider an issue. Some of these are impregnated in our real food…plants and animals…our human fuel sources. Some of these are neurotoxic…toxic to the brain. Knowing what to avoid and how to help our immune system fight them is what has had the biggest impact for us.
I couldn’t agree with you more. I do wish there were more parents like yourself. Thanks for being a selfless mom. Yes! Colors and dyes mess with neurotoxins and kids don’t understand what is happening to them. It can put a person over the edge. Praying for your strength to keep up the fight.