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Once again, this time in neighboring Wisconsin, gun violence hits the most vulnerable among us: our school-age children and the teachers who have been unfairly tasked with protecting them because apparently there is no political will to take on the gun lobby and gun enthusiasts (“Teen kills 2 at Wisconsin school,” front page, Dec. 17). My daughter teaches elementary school students. Recently, during a lockdown necessitated (fortunately) by a false alarm, her young students were frightened and traumatized by the experience. Here were some of their questions for their teacher:
- If I was in the bathroom, should I jump out the window?
- How will we get to our homes if we don’t know how to cross the street yet?
- What if the dangerous person is entering through the regular evacuation route?
- What if the person is disguised as a visitor and has a visitor name tag on but is still dangerous?
- What if a dangerous person with a weapon somehow gets in the room and finds us in the corner?
- What if I can’t find my teacher and all of the classroom doors are locked?
- If the shooter came into the room and killed people, would you have to go home by yourself?
How would you answer them? And does it not seem hollow and shameful that we lament these tragedies but allow them to continue week in and week out?
Sydney Kase, Edina
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School shootings have become so common that we all know how the aftermath will play out. Some will blame access to guns, and others will say it’s mental health. Here in Lakeville, one of the biggest cities in Minnesota that went for Trump, voters also rejected an operational levy that would have increased the number of behavioral support specialists in the district. I’m not saying these staff members would stop school shootings, but it would have shown that Republicans take student mental health seriously. As every shooting since Columbine has shown, there is a large portion of Americans that accept the slaughter of children as “a fact of life.” I want to believe that my fellow citizens care about the safety and well-being of our children in our schools, but as the recent election has shown, protecting your guns and keeping your property taxes low are far more important than protecting children.
Nick Hansen, Lakeville