Students processing the attack in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers — yet another school shooting — returned to a common theme: They are the “lockdown generation.”
After every mass school shooting, Laurel Brooks, a high school graphic design and game-art teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina, tries to guide students through conversations and artwork that can help them express their thoughts.
After the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 14 students and three staff members, students worked on a graphic essay that described themselves as “the lockdown generation.” The theme has resonated with subsequent classes. “It is frightening that it is consistent,” she said. “They have grown up with it. ... They are still children, and they shouldn’t have to be resilient to this kind of trauma.” Los Angeles social studies teacher Nicolle Fefferman started her high school classes Wednesday with questions about how people were feeling after the Uvalde massacre — on the heels of the supermarket killings in Buffalo and the church attack in Orange County, California, the third major shooting she'd processed with them in two weeks. “What I was hearing was a lot of frustration from the students I teach that this hasn’t been fixed. And a lot of anger that we seem to be the only country that these things happen in. And students ask: ‘Why?’ ” she said. In one of her classes, students began listing all the times they’ve had to be in lockdowns. Then the students asked Fetterman what it was like when she was young. Her answer stunned them, she said. “They said, ‘You didn’t do lockdown drills when you were growing up?’" they asked."‘No, guys, this was not a part of my experience,’"she said she answered. “This is the generation that has been engaged in these drills the way we used to do earthquake and fire drills,” Fetterman said. Mass shootings in schools have remained a grim presence in America, but their numbers have held relatively even in recent years. Since 2012, a total of 73 students have been killed in school shootings with at least four victims shot and two victims killed, according to research by James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University who studies mass killings. Last year there was one school shooting of that scale, a rampage at an Oxford, Michigan, high school that left four students dead. On Thursday, hundreds of Oxford High School students walked out and formed a ‘U’ on the football field to show support for students and families in Uvalde, Texas. A school spokeswoman said it was part of a national effort calling for changes in gun laws. In 2020, with many school buildings closed as part of pandemic precautions, there were no school shootings of that magnitude. “There really hasn’t been an increase in large-scale shootings at schools. When you look at the risks, they are extremely low,” he said. Fox described the increased gun violence during the pandemic as an “aberration,” saying there’s “no reason to think the numbers will continue to rise.” Still, other experts worry heightened school violence could continue. They say students are as stressed as ever after a traumatic two years, and schools lack the resources to help. They also point to factors such as the nation’s increasingly divided political and cultural climate. “There’s a lot of forces converging here that are creating a stew of anger, grievance and easy access to firearms,” said Daniel Webster, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. “It’s incredibly alarming,” he added. “We should not think of this as normal, we should not think of this as acceptable, and we must act to protect children. We have failed as a society if we don’t protect children to be able to come home safely from school.”
Please follow us on Google to support us United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
President Joe Biden to visit Texas after school shooting in UvaldeThe president will visit “in the coming days,” he said at an unrelated press...
Read more »
Parents of victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting struggling with massacre in Uvalde, TexasThe shooting in Uvalde, Texas is the deadliest attack at a U.S. grade school since 2012. DaveCarlinTV has more on how parents who lost their own children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut are reacting to this latest tragedy.
Read more »
How to Help the Victims and Families of the Robb Elementary Shooting in Uvalde, TexasWhere to donate directly to the families, how to get in touch with your senators, and blood drive openings in Texas.
Read more »
A teacher in Uvalde, Texas, describes ‘the longest 35 minutes of my life’“What do you want me to say?” one Robb Elementary school teacher asked a reporter. “That I can’t eat? That all I hear are their voices screaming? And I can’t help them?”
Read more »
Uvalde, Texas school shooting leaves 19 children, 3 adults, including shooter deadUvalde High School student Salvador Ramos gunned down 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School after barricading himself inside a classroom, Texas authorities said.
Read more »
Vigil for Uvalde Students & Teachers at Texas State Capitol - 1 of 15 - Photos - The Austin ChroniclePHOTO GALLERY: Hundreds gathered at the Texas State Capitol yesterday to remember the victims of the Uvalde school shooting. 📸: John_J_Anderson
Read more »