School shootings: tragedy strikes weekly

It seems as if every week there’s a new school shooting tragedy splayed across the front page of the news.This week, it’s Berrendo Middle School in Roswell, New Mexico.

On Tuesday, January 14, when students were huddled in the school gym warming up while they waited for classes to start, a 12 year-old student opened fire with a shotgun. Only two students were injured, a 13 year-old girl and an 11 year-old boy, thanks to the brave efforts of John Masterson, the teacher who convinced the boy to drop the gun, according to foxnews.com.

Unfortunately, there have been school shootings way before the students in the class of 2014 were even conceived. In fact, there have been a total of 137 fatal school shootings that killed 297 victims between 1980 and 2012, not including the most recent tragedies or incidents in which the victims were only wounded, according to slate.com.

There’s no need to strap the kindergarteners into bullet-proof vests, though. According to the CDC’s School Associated Violent Death Study, between 1% and 2% of all homicides among school-age children happen on school grounds or on the way to and from school or during a school sponsored event. In reality, the real danger is more likely lurking at home, where more than four children die each day from child abuse according to childhelp-usa.com.

Whether or not students enjoy school or would rather spend their day wrestling with an anaconda, it’s actually kind of a safe place. Perhaps not for the emotionally fragile, but students are more likely to be killed on the drive to school than by that sketchy kid walking down the hall. Worst case, he has a cell phone in his pocket, not a semi-automatic.

There is no doubt that school shootings are devastating tragedies. Those who lost their lives or were injured never deserved to become a victim, and they don’t deserve to be a reoccurring news segment that causes hysteria over a speck in the big picture.
While the news continues to cash in on small-town tragedies, the students in Harford County may wonder if- or when- their school will become the next national headline. Thankfully, the odds aren’t in our favor.