YOUR SAY: SCHOOL SHOOTINGS
How my daughter’s students responded
The young people in my life start with my children and their children. I was visiting my youngest child Avery Powell in New York when the Uvalde, Texas, shooting occurred. She is an art teacher in the High School of Fashion Industries and we had joined her that week in her classroom to view an exhibition of the graduating students’ work, including a full-on runway show of their fashion creations. While visiting her classroom, she showed us a project she had prepared for her students to help them think about the practical things they needed to be addressing as they graduated and moved on to the next stage of education and their careers.
But the next day she felt she needed to address the realities of threat and tragedy and fear from the Texas shooting. She described that day to us when she returned home and shared some of the expressions of her students with me. I was particularly struck by one of the students’ paintings on that day because for me it was symbolic of the souls of those 19 sweet children and their two brave teachers soaring away.
When I saw the invitation to submit a contribution to Your Say, I wanted to share this with our friends and neighbors in her hometown of San Diego. Here, in her words, is Avery’s description of how she helped her students use art to express their feelings during what is unfortunately and unnecessarily yet another tragedy visited upon children and teachers in our not-so-United States of America.
“I was a freshman in high school at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts when the Columbine school shooting occurred. It was a devastating blow to my sense of safety at school. I am now an art teacher at the High School of Fashion Industries in New York City.
“The day after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, I felt resigned and angry that yet again, I have to find the words to help restore some of my students’ sense of safety at school. Luckily, we were able to use art for reflection, expression and even activism. Students were greeted with watercolors and postcard-sized paper.
“After discussing the facts of the event, I asked them to reflect on their emotions. What lines, shapes and symbols reflected what was in their head, heart and conscience? Students used their watercolor paintings to express what words can fail to convey. After sharing examples of artwork in response to gun violence, I invited them to add text and additional imagery to turn their work into a postcard to be sent to an elected official.
“This painting [at right] is by my student Lynna Guiracocha. She painted a balloon for each victim as a symbol of their lost childhood. While art may not always solve the larger problem, it is a powerful tool for everyone, especially youth, to feel engaged with positive change within their community and country.”
JAY POWELL NORMAL HEIGHTS
We asked: Since the slaying of 19 Texas elementary school students and two of their teachers, what discussions have you had with the young people in your life about school shootings?
what more is there to say? How does a teacher converse about such a tragedy? The saddest fact of the matter is a human being can be capable of such a diabolical act in the first place. We were all given the ability to reason and choose between right and wrong — yet some from my species continue to kill children?
I do know where there should be constant dialogue, though. Our senators and representatives, statewide and nationwide, must craft legislation to protect those who have elected them and those who are too young to vote. The absurdity of just the sound of it makes me sick. Two adults and 19 children in an elementary school gunned down? Come on, aren’t we better than that, for crying out loud?
My father, my older brother and some friends of mine used to go hunting many years ago in the desert. We would make it a bonding experience where, if we were lucky enough, we might get a rabbit, a quail or a dove to take home to Mom for her unbelievable kitchen art. I was taught how to handle a shotgun in a safe and sane way. Thank goodness those days are behind me now, and I am to the point where if I never have to shoot a gun, I will feel blessed for those bonding trips with my family and blessed that I never have to shoot a gun ever again.
If you are a hunter, enjoy the wonderful outdoors and culinary expertise if you have a mom like I used to who could turn what we brought home into culinary art. If you feel the need to have a gun to protect your family from intrusion, go for it. Otherwise, I just don’t see why guns are necessary.
POWAY