school shooting

I like to think of this blog as a place where I store all the girls memories, the fun times we've had, the milestones we pass, the events we check off  and occasionally it's a place for my thoughts and life moments.

On Wednesday, Valentines Day, there was yet another school shooting in this country, the 18th so far this year. Just to help you wrap your head around that, it's 18 shootings in schools in 45 days!  This time 17 children never made it home. Although very much the same as all the others in as much as it is terrifying and heart breaking, this one was a little bit different, it was 40 mins from here. Shortly after it happened my friends were posting photos on social media asking for people to keep an eye out for this child or that child as they were missing and hadn't been heard from since the shooting at MSD High. It was chaos, absolute bone chilling chaos and it would be easy to lose your phone and you obviously can't talk when locked in a closet or whilst being marched with your hands in the air by the police, across the campus so these parents held on to hope but of the 5 photos I saw, I later saw them all on the news, DEAD. These young smiling faces were no more, their light extinguished at the hands of a murderer with a semi automatic weapon.

I am not a gun lover, I don't like them at all. My father had guns and I grew up surrounded by them but he shot clay pigeons and the occasional pheasant and rabbit. I knew there were loaded guns in the house and I knew never to touch them. Guns in my house were not for murdering other human beings they were for sport, and I use that term lightly.

On Thursday my first client of the day was firstly a family member of a little boy who spent 70 minutes on lock down hiding behind the trash can and surrounded by book bags to try and shield him, secondly he is a man who started as a teacher and worked his way up to Superintendent of Miami Dade Schools. His perspective was really interesting as he has been on both sides of the fence and as I would ask questions and offer suggestions we would tell me why it wouldn't work, been there done that, or a myriad of other reasons.  But the bottom line is this........

SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE.

The gun argument is wasted on me, you do not need semi automatics and automatics, no one needs these. The constitution was written, including the second amendment, when people carried bayonets so it is now null and void. This current administration recently made it possible for people with mental illness to buy a gun. I could go on a complete detour about the current President but I won't but he ranks right up there with guns in my mind.

I shield Rosie from some stuff and only feed it to her in dribs and drabs so as not to scare the bejeezus out of her. This one we discussed at length. The Superintendent called with a recording later that night and said he was making sure that in this district we would have more police and more security guards in every school, starting the next day.

How am I supposed to let her know she will be safe when I send her to school when this KEEPS happening. I dropped her on Thursday and she said, I don't see the police Mummy, I said perhaps they were at the main entrance and she was fine with it. When I picked her up the teacher had spoken to them all at length and they practiced their drills. ( seriously they have to have drills for being gunned down by a mad man in school now)

Social media is full of ideas, full of suggestions to keep our children safe but for me I'm stepping it up. I had seen a few posts regarding bullet proof back packs and so I researched them and then, with a heart that is heavy because really it's too hard to fathom that this is even a possibility, I ordered her one.

If you do own an automatic weapon, I beg that you please consider turning it in. Keep your hand gun, if you must but you DO NOT need an AR-15 and the like.
Don't wait until this gets this close to your home.