I woke up this morning and did my usual social media checks, I didn't get all that far before I noticed that a teacher at my old high school had posted on Facebook that school was cancelled there for the day. I thought this was a little odd, since I didn't think the forecast had been stormy, at least not enough to merit a snow day. So I went to Twitter to see if any of the local news sources had tweeted about what was going on, and that's where I got the whole story.
The Cache County School District made the decision to cancel school today, as well as games and activities, because a student was overheard making threats; the student said that they planned to come to school today and take their own life and the lives of others. Now I don't know how credible the threat was, I don't know if the kid was serious or just joking. I don't know if the student who reported overhearing it was credible or not, and I don't think it really matters; there is a pattern with school shootings and other violent tragedies and suicides, it seems that one act will spur others on the edge to commit the same type of act. The district is almost obligated to cancel school for the safety of the students.
It frustrates me to think that a student would even joke about this sort of thing, let alone be serious about it. I almost feel like it is somehow a failing of the education system, like we teachers were supposed to teach this kid coping skills but we failed. I just don't understand the mentality of these students, they are looking for such a permanent solution to what is in reality a very temporary problem. It's even more crazy to me when an adult does something like this. I just can't fathom that sort of mental breakdown. I don't think that this is something that we will ever be able to eradicate completely, but I think something has to be done.
I think one issue is that there is limited access to mental health professionals for those who do cannot afford health insurance. President Obama's Affordable Healthcare Act will hopefully increase access to treatment for those individuals. I think that if these people were to have someone helping them to cope with what is going on in their life they would not turn to violence so often. Along with this, it is high time that America removed the stigma surrounding mental illness; many people do not want to get treatment or admit they have a problem because society has convinced them that to do so means to admit that they are weak, or incapable of the rigors of daily life.
I think the other issue here really is the access these people have to lethal weapons. Many conservative news sources reason that if these people don't have access to guns they will simply use a knife, and this may be true, but unless they are capable of accurately throwing that knife, they are much easier to stop before they have the chance to murder more people. It's much easier to rush and overpower someone with a knife than someone with a gun. I'm not saying that we need to ban gun ownership altogether, but we should think seriously about how we check those to whom guns are sold, and how those guns are stored. The shooter at Newtown didn't use his own guns, he used his mother's.
In an case, even though I know that this is something that will never be completely eradicated, I think that as and educator I can do my part to try and reduce the number of tragedies in the world. I hope to help kids develop coping skills, and as a music teacher I hope to encourage all kids to join my classes so they can have a feeling of belonging. I also intend to make my classroom a safe space, where mocking, teasing, and bullying will not be tolerated. I hope that I will be able to affect change for the better.
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