Isn’t it time to also keep them safe?
This is the face of a bright young man who went to school on a May Tuesday and didn’t come home.
Below is a link to a video of a middle school student asking a politician what he will do to keep her and her classmates safe just the day before Kendrick Castillo lost his life protecting others. It’s a heartwrenching video asking a question no 12-year-old should ever have to ask.
I know nothing about the politician in the interview. I’m not endorsing anyone. I heard empathy in his answer but not solutions. And this isn’t a political post. This is a post of mourning.
This is my call to action.
Wake up, America.
I have a middle school student. I have an elementary student. And I have a high school student who I had to tell yesterday not to worry when she heard about another school shooting in our home state of Colorado because it was not where she grew up and no one was killed. Last night, this young man died of his injuries.
It’s been more than twenty years now since my mother called me because of the national news coverage on a mass school shooting. It was so new, the idea of high schools under lockdown and kids shooting kids, she didn’t know if I was safe or even near Columbine. I remember telling her I was an adult and at work in Boulder, not near any high school.
Today, I feel the fear she felt then. Only, my children are not adults. They are in three individual schools each day. And every day, there is a chance they may not make it home.
I grieve for this young man’s mother. For his father. For his grandparents who likely don’t get what the world they tried to build for their grandchildren has come to. For the children who had the time to dive under desks because he stood up. I grieve for Colorado. Again. And Again. And Again. I grieve for our country. For our students.
When do we stop grieving and start acting? At what point do we pull all our children out of schools and not return them until they are safe? Parents, grandparents, community members, what will it take?
Our teachers shut down schools all across America over the past few years for pay and equal rights. Why aren’t we shutting them down until our demands for safety are met too? Don’t get me wrong here. I stood with our Arizona teachers when our schools were closed just last year until they were heard by our governor and the powers that be agreed to bring their salaries up to the standards of those set ten years or more before.
Isn’t it time to stand for our children too?
When do we stand up to those same powers and demand our children not be in their buildings until they are safe? Until we know they will come home every Tuesday afternoon. Until we no longer have to mourn.
Why do heroes have to give so much? What happened to the heroes who save the day and walk out with a medal of honor? Today our heroes are young. They are real.
And they so often don’t come home.
To anyone who was honored to know Kendrick Castillo, I’m sorry.
We have all failed you. We have all failed. And for our failures, you and Kendrick have paid the price. You have paid the price because we talk, but we don’t act. You have paid the price because we have all become satisfied with gun control debates and zero action.
We have failed.
I am mourning. Feel free to mourn with me. Feel free to share your disgust that this has happened again. Feel free to ask for change.
Feel free to evoke change.
Give me a reason to send my children back to buildings we think are safe but know are not, or give us all reason to keep them home and march with them to someone who will keep them safe. I’m at the point where these are our only two options.
#WhenIsItTime #Colorado #LoveOurChildren #STEMshooting #KendrickCastillo #highlandsranch