Another Gun Violence Reaction
When Neighboring Districts or Similar Schools Also Need to Reflect
If only this nation could begin the year with no school violence. . . .
This brief interjection follows yet another horrific shooting incident, to begin the New Year, January 4th, 2024 at Perry High School in Iowa, with eight victims, including the slaying of an 11-year-old boy.
As an admittedly idealistic educator, who began a full-time teaching career in a public high school only a few months before the April 20, 1999 Columbine High School massacre, I am still not used to the new abnormal of trying to navigate reported gun violence.
As we continue our planned responses in case of such terrifying emergencies, most of us still do not expect such disasters, even after the national spike in serious school aggression since returning from the Covid-19 lockdown.
I will not attempt to summarize how any specific educational community handles the intense psychological aftermath of gun violence in its own building, on its own property, in its own neighborhood.
Here, we’ll only briefly touch upon the common ripple effect to other districts, those near and far from the catastrophe, which may indirectly involve many, if not all, of the student population.
In my metro region, the Oxford High School Shooting (11-30-2021), only 40 miles north of Detroit and the Michigan State University Shooting (2-13-2023), about 90 miles from my high school, forced some more recent examples where students — and staff — demanded at least some kind of discussion on how to process such tragedies.
Last year’s MSU catastrophe disrupted a frequently simplistic narrative; that school shooters were always sociopathic young white males — and by implication, not quite as relevant to our 98% Black demographic. Yet the reports of a random 43 year-old African American gunman bewildered some once dismissive teenagers in each of my social studies classes.
One former teacher — not in social studies — complained how I should honor Black History Month by not discussing any violence, for it should be the one month our students are free from such possibly triggering talks. Still, the student-centered, discussion-based initiatives contrasted those fearful claims.1
A few students did mention shocked brothers, sisters and other relatives attending MSU at the time.
While many inquiries remain unanswered, as a teaching tool, the open-ended questions tend to lead better with a more evocative, empathetic and yes, necessary dialogue — those teachable moments often treasured by social studies educators with current events in particular.
To help explore these “courageous conversations,” the prompts below might aid secondary school teachers at a loss for trying to facilitate such an important follow-up.
They also give the more reticent students a chance to express themselves in writing.
Try answer the current events questions below using complete sentences as you express your view.
1. What do you believe is the message of these two memes regarding the recent increase in mass shootings across the United States?
2. Do you agree or disagree with what these authors are trying to say? Why?
3. What, if anything, can lawmakers do about gun violence? Could any law help? Explain your answer. Include how your response relates to the Second Amendment of the Constitution (“A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”)
An annual legislative branch project-based simulation requires students to create their own bill, suggested from a long list of possible topics. After drafting their proposed law, they enter it in a joint session of their mock congress, with a floor debate leading to an eventual roll call vote of yay, nay or abstain, before the teacher (ah, that’s me) acting as governor or president, vetoes or signs any passed student bill into law.
Sometimes, I veto bills on an important technicality or because they are unfunded mandates, yet classes could also override my veto with a 2/3 majority.
It’s always an enlightening exercise giving students the (typically eager) opportunity to better internalize these basic elements of a representative assembly, instead of traditional drill-and-kill worksheet memorization.
While I’ve enjoyed this simple civics project for over 20 years, this semester revealed the most student-created attempts at various mock gun control legislation. Most of the bills did not pass in spirited debate, except for the basic reform of changing the national legal age to own, purchase and use firearms without licensed supervision (usually to 21, although one class tried to pass a bill making the legal age 24).
I do not urge them to take any certain position, only how to develop a voice to be heard.
Clearly, such bills do not suggest a panacea for reducing mass gun violence.
They do hint at a student body more determined to speak up, perhaps more motivated to try out something in the name of an ever elusive peace, from a reoccurring, dissonant echo, now emanating from a grieving district in Iowa. . . .
Although rarely requested, students can always opt to leave the room with a pass to the counselor or social worker, if necessary.
You have such a unique situation in being a Social Studies teacher. It aligns with your lifelong passion to raise awareness of social injustices. I appreciate the varied ways you are able to work this into your lessons, making government accessible, better understood and a vehicle for change.
I admit I wish some of these posts were more of the Garrison Keillor style: homey and comforting, funny and amusing. Something to take me away from the heavy news that is vast in our face every day. Especially when the subject is so horrific andwith no real solutions. It leaves us feeling helpless. And I'd rather not think about it when I am hampered from doing much at all to stop it.
But, thank you for giving your kids a voice and showing them a way to use the system to fight back. For teaching them that they have the means, the power and even the duty to protest against these things and find a solution.
We are at war in our own neighborhoods against poverty and crime, inequalities, lack of education and opportunities. Nothing changes if nothing is done and all is left to become a memory - until the next cataclysmic occurrence.
Thank you for continuing to be a voice and encouraging others to find a better way. You are appreciated!