It is ridiculous I have to go to school with the fear of a fellow classmate shooting me.
There are so many different things people could be worrying about, but this shouldn’t be No.1 for students, educators and parents.
The fear doesn’t stop at myself. I have an older brother at the high school with me, and a little sister at the middle school. I have to worry about them as well.
My older brother has special needs and I’m terrified knowing that if there’s ever a school shooter here, he would panic and not know what to do.
It’s my little sister’s first year in middle school, and the fear of something happening to her while she’s so far from me makes me sick to my stomach.
They’re the people I would stress about the most, and then there’s the fear of losing my friends, who mean the world to me.
Anxiety fills me every time I think about the fact that if something like this were to happen at our school, I wouldn’t be able to do anything for them without also risking my safety. Throw in the distance between me and my sister, and it’s even worse.
I sit in class and think about different ways I would get out of the building. Depending on what class I’m in, could I use a window? Would I have to go for a door?
We shouldn’t have to fear walking down a hallway and then suddenly hearing screams and gunshots.
From Sept. 10-18, there were 13 threats made at high schools around Kansas.
DHS has See Something, Say Something – call (877) 626-8203.
And most times students would call.
A study was done by Alfred University that about 80% of students would be willing to tell a teacher if they heard about the possibility of a shooting happening.
According to the study, younger students are more likely to tell a teacher or an adult – 87% of middle schoolers would tell someone they trusted, while 75% of freshmen and sophomores would.
The saddest thing I have seen is parents having young children practice what they would do in a situation such as this. Telling their children to make their breathing look unnoticeable, to relax their face and their muscles and to play dead.
The fact that this is a normal thing in their lives and so many others truly sickens me.
This poor mom in tears explaining that her child must do these things in order to survive – even though she’s in school, where she should be learning and having fun.
This is an incredibly scary and, yet, it’s a very real possibility.
No one should have to experience a school shooting, where the student is curled up in the corner hiding. And outside the parents can only hope their child is OK.