When we were first

We owe action to shooting victims

Twenty years ago this month, a middle school in Northeast Arkansas had the horrible, tragic event of a school shooting perpetrated by two students at the school. They used high-powered guns taken from a grandparent’s locked gun cabinet.

A teacher and four children were lost, and scars from that terrible day still haunt those who survived.

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No one was prepared for having the eyes of the world focused on our small state for such an unbelievable reason. We hobbled together resources for the school victims (both adults and children), their families, and their community. We didn’t have public policies in place to handle children as young as these committing such heinous acts.

We had to endure political debates that were some of the most hateful and demonic that I had ever experienced in advocating for programs and policies impacting children, many of those “suggestions” coming from elected officials in other states rather than our own.

While there were some elected officials in Arkansas who acted poorly, for the most part, our Republican governor and leaders from civic, religious and political organizations understood that we had to have some time to heal and to act mindfully about any lasting public policies that were created in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Though many of my colleagues and professionals from around the country struggled to figure out what made two children attack their classmates, no one ever thought this would be an occurrence that would happen repeatedly for years to come. Services and precautions were adopted in the aftermath of our school shooting, and we have struggled on and off to ensure that our school campuses were safe so that our children and teachers would not fear for their lives.

That day now almost 20 years ago was the worst in my 40 years of professional practice, and I was only a bystander living more than 100 miles from that school campus.

Seeing the students from around Florida coming together to say they’ve had enough gives me hope and better confidence that this time will be different. I thought that Sandy Hook would have motivated change, but sadly, no change emerged that would prevent other mass casualties.

These eloquent, thoughtful and enraged students are putting tragedy into thoughtful action. All of us who have experienced, directly and indirectly, a mass shooting should take up their banner and stand with them. Their ideas are practical, won’t cost a lot, and would realistically limit if not prevent these actions in the future.

The Florida students are a proverbial phoenix rising from their shared tragedy and creating an action plan. I plan to stand with them and urge all of you to do the same. We owe those who suffered in Arkansas 20 years ago, and all those since, nothing less.