I’m a news junkie, by nature and by profession, but I’m guilty of being numb to “hard” news sometimes. More than I’d like to admit. There’s just … so much of it, all the time. Especially when you’re in the business. You learn to compartmentalize for the sake of your mental health.

But there are a few instances of violence and injustice that break through the ice, so to speak.

Case in point, school shootings.

When I learned about the latest school shooting in the U.S. Nov. 30, I cringed, took a moment to say a silent prayer for those suffering in Oxford, Mich., and then went online in search of more information. 

In a state where the 1999 Columbine High School shooting has become an indelible part of our historical fabric, such tragic news of children killing children (and sometimes adults), sadly, is increasingly less shocking.

One “positive” thing the coronavirus did was drive down the number of school shootings last year. Now that kids are back in school in person, the numbers are back on the rise.

Education Week reported, as of Dec. 1 and including the four teens killed in Michigan the day before, “There have been 29 school shootings this year, 21 since August 1.”

Oxford is the deadliest school shooting since May 2018, the news outlet reports. And, “There have been 87 school shootings since 2018. The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have interrupted the trend line. The 2020 figure, with 10 shootings, was significantly lower than 2019 and 2018, which each had 24,” Education Week reports.

When I was in high school more than three decades ago, “school shootings” wasn’t a term that existed. It’s become a regular, and I fear, unsurprising, part of our vernacular today.

We didn’t have active shooter drills in my high school; we barely had fire drills back then. I worried far more about my history test scores or soccer games than any possible threat of violence at school.

Why have school shootings and lockdowns become reasonable expectations today? Why are school shootings a particularly American phenomenon? What’s wrong with this picture?

The news parody site The Onion has released the same “story” after every school shooting since 2014: “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.” 

“The Onion simply freshens the date, location and number of casualties as the site reruns its bit of social commentary,” states marketwatch.com.

It’s not funny and it’s not meant to be. 

Incidentally, in local headlines last week: 2021 became the deadliest year in Colorado Springs’ history with the Nov. 24 apparent murder-suicide of a married woman and man, The Gazette reported.

“Laura’s [Laura Tong’s] death is the 40th homicide in Colorado Springs this year, Sokolik said. Her death also marks the deadliest year on record for the city, surpassing 2020’s 39 homicides — which topped the previous record of 38 set in 2018,” the article states.

These are awful, terrible statistics. These are historical records we as a society and as a community break at an increasingly more frequent pace. 

“What you allow is what will continue,” is a quote I keep in mind during times of hardship. 

If we continue to allow this — this gun violence in our schools, this murder of our children and our neighbors — it will continue.

Editor Michelle Karas has called the Pikes Peak region home for more than six years. Contact her at michelle.karas@pikespeaknewspapers.com.

Michelle Karas