Does anyone have experience with a school shooting?

[Anonymous]

I watched Dateline's episode marking the 15 year anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting.
In 1998, I was a junior in high school and remember being told about it over the intercom system.
The next year, a 6 year-old girl in my school district, Kayla Rolland, was shot and killed by a classmate.
Our school was locked down for the rest of the day.
Anyone here have experience with something like this?

[Anonymous]

Not a school shooting, but I was in middle school during the DC sniper shootings. We were on lockdown for most of the first day, meaning we were not allowed to leave the classroom we were in, and I remember my teacher covering the doors and windows. Same year as 9-11. It was a scarring year.

[Anonymous]

I teach for MCPS. The sniper shootings happened during my first year. Yes, we spent a couple days locked down. I invented games to keep the kids busy during recess. The hardest day was when the bus driver was killed near our school and very few kids or staff had arrived before the road blocks. We were pretty scared but had to keep going. I had just gotten a cell phone and kept it in my hand because I was so scared I'd need to call 911.

[Anonymous]

Yes. My mom was a teacher at an elementary school where 5 kids were shot and killed. One was her student, a first-grader. Totally changed our family and our town--especially the ethnic community from which those kids came.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I watched Dateline's episode marking the 15 year anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting.
In 1998, I was a junior in high school and remember being told about it over the intercom system.
The next year, a 6 year-old girl in my school district, Kayla Rolland, was shot and killed by a classmate.
Our school was locked down for the rest of the day.
Anyone here have experience with something like this?

my friend was this little girls teacher when the event occurred. So sad.

[Anonymous]

I was a senior in high school at a school near Columbine high school. Our school was on lockdown the day of the shooting and when the Columbine kids went back to school, they came to my high school. We didnt interact much though, they modified the school day so we shared the building, early shift and late shift. I also have a friend who was shot and wounded but not life threatening at the Aurora, CO theater shooting.

My thoughts are that in any given day we put trust into so many people's hands. We trust that the elevator we ride on has been properly maintained, that drivers on the road are not intoxicated, that people won't bring loaded weapons into our schools and workplaces. It does happen and I support security measures but I can't live in fear of it all, it is just too exhausting. However when something does happen I do think about my closeness to such tragedies and I hug my kids and husband a little tighter.

[Anonymous]

I was a teacher in baltimore and we had a lockdown for a student with a gun. Things were resolved peacefully, but the feeling of being responsible for my class of 9th graders was horrifying.

[Anonymous]

OP: I am aware of why you are thinkin of this topic. Its been 10 years since Columbine; 10 years, and that is not 11 years or 9 years, but rather, 10 years. I guess 10 is really meaningful or something.

But Dateline aside, the gun homicide rate is down 49% since 1993, and the public is generally unaware. This was discussed recently elsewhere on the forum.

I've tried to follow this issue recently. Finding non-partisan facts is tough; everyone has an agenda and both sides distort the facts badly.

So when the Pew research article came up, I was surprised by this fact:

"Despite national attention to the issue of firearm violence, most Americans are unaware that gun crime is lower today than it was two decades ago. According to a new Pew Research Center survey, today 56% of Americans believe gun crime is higher than 20 years ago and only 12% think it is lower."

Link: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/07/gun-homi...ince-1993-peak-public-unaware/

Of course, there are still too many violent crimes in the US; even one is too many. ANd as for school shootings we need a zero tolerance policy so that no child is ever harmed in any school in any way, of course.

But, for society as a whole, is the public being misled that this is as big a national issue as its made out to be? Is the bulk of the problem going away on its own in America? Can any society ever really get to "zero" ? and what would the cost be to civil rights to do that?

Maybe there are other law-enforcement priorities we need to look at? For example, law enforcement has radically changed recently as far as arrests for use of marijuana, the focus on Muslim-Americans in areas like NYC, and that city's "stop and frisk" policy. Maybe its time to think outside the box on other areas?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP: I am aware of why you are thinkin of this topic. Its been 10 years since Columbine; 10 years, and that is not 11 years or 9 years, but rather, 10 years. I guess 10 is really meaningful or something.

But Dateline aside, the gun homicide rate is down 49% since 1993, and the public is generally unaware. This was discussed recently elsewhere on the forum.

I've tried to follow this issue recently. Finding non-partisan facts is tough; everyone has an agenda and both sides distort the facts badly.

So when the Pew research article came up, I was surprised by this fact:

"Despite national attention to the issue of firearm violence, most Americans are unaware that gun crime is lower today than it was two decades ago. According to a new Pew Research Center survey, today 56% of Americans believe gun crime is higher than 20 years ago and only 12% think it is lower."

Link: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/07/gun-homi...ince-1993-peak-public-unaware/

Of course, there are still too many violent crimes in the US; even one is too many. ANd as for school shootings we need a zero tolerance policy so that no child is ever harmed in any school in any way, of course.

But, for society as a whole, is the public being misled that this is as big a national issue as its made out to be? Is the bulk of the problem going away on its own in America? Can any society ever really get to "zero" ? and what would the cost be to civil rights to do that?

Maybe there are other law-enforcement priorities we need to look at? For example, law enforcement has radically changed recently as far as arrests for use of marijuana, the focus on Muslim-Americans in areas like NYC, and that city's "stop and frisk" policy. Maybe its time to think outside the box on other areas?

I'm thinking about it because

1) It's been 15 years since it's happened.
2) I'm incredibly saddened to think of everything these kids missed. I'm the same age as most of the victims. They've missed all of these wonderful experiences.

It has nothing to do with my opinions on guns.
DO NOT turn this into a political discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP: I am aware of why you are thinkin of this topic. Its been 10 years since Columbine; 10 years, and that is not 11 years or 9 years, but rather, 10 years. I guess 10 is really meaningful or something.

But Dateline aside, the gun homicide rate is down 49% since 1993, and the public is generally unaware. This was discussed recently elsewhere on the forum.

I've tried to follow this issue recently. Finding non-partisan facts is tough; everyone has an agenda and both sides distort the facts badly.

So when the Pew research article came up, I was surprised by this fact:

"Despite national attention to the issue of firearm violence, most Americans are unaware that gun crime is lower today than it was two decades ago. According to a new Pew Research Center survey, today 56% of Americans believe gun crime is higher than 20 years ago and only 12% think it is lower."

Link: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/07/gun-homi...ince-1993-peak-public-unaware/

Of course, there are still too many violent crimes in the US; even one is too many. ANd as for school shootings we need a zero tolerance policy so that no child is ever harmed in any school in any way, of course.

But, for society as a whole, is the public being misled that this is as big a national issue as its made out to be? Is the bulk of the problem going away on its own in America? Can any society ever really get to "zero" ? and what would the cost be to civil rights to do that?

Maybe there are other law-enforcement priorities we need to look at? For example, law enforcement has radically changed recently as far as arrests for use of marijuana, the focus on Muslim-Americans in areas like NYC, and that city's "stop and frisk" policy. Maybe its time to think outside the box on other areas?

Is this the first time this Pew study is shared on DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Second. 1st was in political.

[Anonymous]

Not a school shooting, but DS and DD were in school during a likely tornado. The NWS was unable to firmly declare that it was a tornado, but I am sure it was. The damage was clear - even a really BIG tree was knocked over like a twig!

It came on so fast; luckily the daycare got everyone into the central hall in the interior of the building within minutes and kept the children calm.

It was aweful! I was working from home less than a mile away and could not even go out to go to them - although I wanted to - it was just my instinct at time like that, no matter what.

I feel we were lucky.

[Anonymous]

Gun crime as a whole is down. Deaths in mass shootings such as Columbine and CT are not.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I witnessed the Wendell Williamson shooting at UNC in 1995.

[Anonymous]

Boys at my school had zip guns - no biggie