LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Richmond Times-Dispatch September 14, 2024
School shootings an unacceptable ‘fact of life’
From kindergarten until I graduated from high school in 1971, I don’t recall a firearm disrupting those education environments. The same can be said for my college and graduate school experiences.
However, that wasn’t the case in the 31 years I worked in public education. As an assistant principal and principal, during the late 1980s until I retired in 2006, students for whatever reason brought firearms to school.
In all my dealings with students in possession of a firearm, I was lucky. My guess is that every school superintendent in America wonders when will their luck run out with a school shooting occurring in one of their schools.
After the recent school shooting in Georgia, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance stated, “I don’t like that this is a fact of life.”
As an American, I’m embarrassed and disgusted with this “fact of life” — we appear to be unwilling to stop our reliance upon firearms to solve our personal problems.
No matter our attempts to educate students and their families that firearms have no place on school grounds, these intrusions continue.
Despite special training for faculty and staff , technology-assisted screening for weapons and the presence of security personnel in school buildings, students and teachers are still being shot.
Why is this? Perhaps the answer can be found from the script of the movie “A Few Good Men.”
During a heated courtroom exchange, a witness shouts at the prosecutor: “You can’t handle the truth!”
Is this America’s problem, that we can’t handle the truth of our inability to stop school shootings?
An even more unacceptable truth is how quickly this senseless Georgia school shooting will become a speck in our rearview mirrors.
Failure to find a solution guarantees that America will continue its dismal decline.
Bill Pike. Henrico.
might be baloney 
Bill: Just stumbled upon your blog post that cites Vance’s comment regarding the recent school shooting in Georgia. It’s interesting to note that Raphael Warnock said nearly the same thing. I’m thinking that in each case, the comment was born from sadness not dismissiveness. Any other interpretation takes the comment out of context and leverages it for political gain.
David
LikeLike
David, thanks for your reading time, as Ray Davies wrote in a Kinks’ song “life is so complicated.” Be safe.
LikeLike