Dear Readers,
You ask what could ducks, staplers, and my former place of employment -
St. Thomas Aquinas High School - have in common? Well, you will soon find out. This morning, I sent this letter to Rep. Sharice Davids and Rev. Adam Hamilton.
Lately, I have been attending Church of the Resurrection via zoom. (Frankly, the church is too large for me, but Adam is a wonderful preacher.) I have been a life-long United Methodist, but I taught at a Catholic High School for twenty-two years. Overall, my experience at Aquinas was fantastic. I made many wonderful friends and I enjoyed my time teaching classic literature to teens.
I know.
Most people do not understand that last part, but I always have enjoyed teenagers. Truly, young people keep me young and I miss that about teaching. The one thing I do not miss about teaching is the increase in school mass shootings in our country. As you will read in my letter to Ms. Davids, I started teaching the year Columbine happened.
I prayed many days that a gun would not appear in my classroom. Yes, I thought about it often. I knew there was nothing I could do about it and the school was doing all it could, but still, it was frightening some days.
Dear Ms. Davids,
"Thank you for the work you do every day on behalf of the American people and on my behalf as my Representative."
My pastor, Adam Hamilton, encourage me to write you a letter. Much of this letter is in his words - which I am sure he researched thoroughly. I will put his words in quotes.
"Several weeks ago we all grieved as 19 children and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. We shared that grief as Republicans and Democrats. You likely know that since January 1, 2022, there have been 27 shootings at schools across America. Some were suicides. Some were children who accidentally discharged guns, and some were teens who took their guns to school with the intent to kill. Twenty-seven school shootings."
But, let me tell you my story.
I started teaching high school English at St. Thomas Aquinas High school in August of 1998. The Columbine Mass Shooting happened in April of 1999. During my entire career as a high school teacher, I lived under the threat of mass shootings.
Colleagues would say to me, that the chances of a mass shooting were like being struck by lightning. Coincidentally, Adam Hamilton used that same argument in a recent newsletter to his congregation; however, I truly feel like that is not an equal comparison.
When there is a thunderstorm and lightning is seen, I go inside my apartment. Or, I go inside a shelter of some kind. If I was attending a high school football or soccer game and it started to storm, the game would be called off.
During the last few years of my teaching career, I felt like a sitting duck on a pond in the middle of a storm.
Were there children at Aquinas who were potential shooters? Probably not many, but over the twenty-two years teaching teenagers, I met a few who I would have red-flagged if that would have been possible.
The drills became ridiculous.
At first, we were asked to hide in the corner, turn out the lights, and huddle together as quietly as possible. As the years went on, we were told to barricade the door and my responsibility as the adult in the room was to fight the intruder with my stapler.
Yes, my stapler.
Every time a mass shooting happened I worried about my safety and the safety of my students. Over the years, the school did lock all the doors during class time, put cameras in the hallways, and secured a full-time SRO (student resource officer), but we did not have metal detectors and we all knew that the back doors of the school would be propped open from time to time by student-athletes who were using the practice fields outback.
"To that end, I write to encourage bi-partisan efforts to reduce school shootings focused on: Research Funding Focused on Reducing Violence Committed by and against Children: We can address this problem, but it will take bi-partisan support of serious research identifying root causes of this violence and practical solutions to address this problem. · Please increase funding for research at the federal level on causes of and actions that can be taken to reduce violence committed by young adults, and against children and teens. Responsible Gun Storage: The largest number of gun deaths each year are suicides, often with young adults using guns owned by their parents. In addition, there are children who find guns and inadvertently harm themselves. · Please pass legislation requiring guns be stored with a trigger lock in place. This will help prevent needless deaths and the misuse of guns in a home. Licensure & Training: Permit laws are the single most effective way to reduce gun violence. States with permit laws of any kind have less gun violence than those without. · Please provide incentives to states where permit and training laws already exist, and to those where they are expanded, or are enacted. Background Checks: Background checks are among the easiest laws to thwart through private party sales, straw man sales and some gun shows and trading of weapons. · Please establish processes and upgrade technology to help states share this information seamlessly and quickly to maximize public safety. We can do something about this. These are our nation’s children AND TEACHERS. You have the power, as legislators, to leave a legacy of safer schools and better policies to protect the lives of our children. I’m pleading with you to please act."
I am retired now, but I worry about children and teachers in all of our schools and the mental impact these shootings have on them.
The statistics can say all they want, but if you are the duck on the pond with nowhere to fly it doesn't matter if it is stormy or not. You know your wings are worthless and there is nothing you can do about it but throw a stapler.
Sincerely,
Paula Coder McCarthy
P.S. Here are a few pictures from 2018. One of my freshman classes developed group projects around the class play - Romeo and Juliet.
The first group did a talk show format. The host interviewed the main characters that sat on a panel. The second group acted out a scene or two of the play, and the third group did a family feud game - Capulets vs Montagues. All fun that I miss!
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