Today in Winder, Georgia
OPINION —
Dear American School Kid, I don’t know what your name is, but I’m sorry. I am deeply, wholeheartedly, and emphatically sorry.
As I write this, at least four were killed and nine were injured in Barrow County, Georgia this morning. Apalachee High School was having a normal day when a person with a gun stalked the halls, taking lives.
Although to call the suspect a gunman is inaccurate. It was a gun-kid. The suspected shooter was 14 years old.
But this occurrence isn’t anything terribly shocking to you. You’ve seen shootings on TV before. Robb Elementary, Sandy Hook, Uvalde. The shooters, I can only assume, want their name in print. They want to be on TV. Why else would they do it?
Consequently, school kids now practice lockdown drills. Sometimes on the same days they do fire drills, or tornado drills.
I wish you knew how much times have changed, kid. When I was a child, sometime after the close of the Civil War, we didn’t have lockdown drills. Namely, because we didn’t have school shootings.
We were, after all, just kids. When at school, we did kid things. We had kid interests. Our biggest problem of the day was whether we were going to be served chicken-like nuggets or whether the meatloaf was made of actual meat.
We passed notes in class. We cared deeply about who was “going out” with whom. The worst thing our teachers had to contend with was whether the boys were passing around the latest edition of M.A.D. Magazine during homeroom.
But now you worry about bullets.
We failed you. Therefore I am sorry you have to grow up in an age where you must face the real possibility that an unstable person will harm you while in a classroom.
I’m also sorry that a recent study said that most school kids worry about shootings happening to them. Elementary school students worry about it. High school kids are aware of the possibility. Teachers are trained to respond. Officers roam the hallways.
So help me, I wish for a simpler time. A time when kids still rode bikes to school, and carried book bags with actual books in them.
Moreover, I wish your world was different. I wish the most violent video game you had was “Pong.” I wish the most offensive images you were exposed to came from the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. I wish that nearly 50 percent of teachers didn’t report feeling symptoms of burnout, and depression.
Even so, every time something like this happens, my main question is: Why schools?
Why do violent people decide to attack schools? Not that any other public place would be any less acceptable. But innocent students? Babies. Sons and daughters? Brothers and sisters? Why?
I wish we had a better earth to offer you. I wish I didn’t have to write a letter like this. I wish that today, in Winder, Georgia, a person with a gun hadn’t harmed beautiful young lives.
As I say, after such a ridiculous and offensive crime, I can only be led to believe that the suspect would want us to mention their name…
Well.
Instead, we’re saying yours.
Sean Dietrich is a columnist, novelist and stand-up storyteller known for his commentary on life in the American South. His column appears in newspapers throughout the U.S. He has authored 15 books.
