On May 24, 2022, an eighteen-year old boy called Salvador Ramos was accused of shooting students and staff at Robb Elementary, an elementary school located in Uvalde, Texas. 19 students and two adults died after this shooting.
As a student and an author, it is impossible to ignore such a tragedy, and I feel an obligation to dedicate a part of my writing platform to addressing the shooting.
Mortality and Dreams Deterred:
Everyone would have to die someday. Humans are mortals, after all, but is dying of murder truly a sign of human mortality?
Anyone can be subject to death, whether it is from old age, sickness, and, of course, murder. A person who is shot does not always have the highest probability of surviving, unfortunately, so, by definition, being murdered is a sign of human mortality.
Still, is it natural mortality? Killing does occur in nature, but when a person is murdered, they die sooner than they normally would have died if they had not been murdered. They could have died because of a biological or physiological cause, like illness or old age, of which occur "naturally," or "inevitably" for anyone who survives long enough for it to happen, but instead, they died because of an external cause: a murderer. Dying from illness and old age is still extremely sad, but dying from murder, dying earlier than you should have died, is almost unnatural. The students and staff who died because of the shooting probably had years left to live, but a couple of bullets, interfered with this.
This way of dying is awful, since the dreams and plans of the victims were deterred. A ten-year-old victim called Lexi Rubio was aspiring to be a lawyer, and another ten-year-old called Uziyah Garcia enjoyed video games and was learning how to play football. Because they died earlier than they should have, extra years of accomplishing goals and connecting with their friends and family were taken away.
"We commit the sins again and then our sons and daughters pay
Our tainted history, is playing on repeat:"
Singer SVRCINA used this lyric in her song "Battlefield." This very lyric reminds me of what happened during the Texas shooting. In history class, you may have read about the countless wars and battles that occurred in American history, and of course, the people who died. Lynches, discrimination, assassinations, dangerous conditions in urbanized cities---those were all a part of history. I would think that these and anything similar to them would be over by now, and yet look at what is happening now: First, there is the Ukraine war, and now there is the Texas shooting.
History is repeating itself. The first line of the lyrics above can be taken very literally: the children who died were actually sons and daughters of many grieving parents, and they had to pay for the repeated history of murder, which they never even contributed to!
"Everything could stay the same or we could change it all"
In the same song, SVRCINA provided a hopeful and powerful lyric about continuing to fight and make changes to this world. With that being said, there are still ways to solve this problem.
Practice Drills and Precautions in Schools:
In my elementary and middle school, there would be practice drills set aside to help students and teachers prepare for fires, earthquakes, and shootings. In second grade, my teacher let students ask questions about what to do when a stranger enters the school.
Drills like this can help students and teachers prepare for such incidents and reduce casualties associated with things like the Texas school shooting.
Figures in authority, such as school superintendents, can also advocate for basic precautionary measures. During the Texas shooting, for instance, a teacher left an exterior door to the school opened, which could have been a way in which the shooter entered the school. Superintendents can advise students and teachers to keep doors shut when they are not being used and not leave a door open unattended.
Locating schools closer to police stations and hospitals, or locating police stations and hospitals closer to schools, may also allow shootings to be prevented quicker. I am not trying to imply that people should put police stations six feet away from schools, since that may be invasive and create a terrifying learning environment for students, but prioritizing locations of schools and safety authorities may be helpful for situations like this. Another location priorities we can establish includes creating an enclosed, hidden area where students can seek cover, safety, and contact information about nearby authorities.
Internet Safety
The gunman actually sent private messages to a girl on Yubo named Cece about his plans to shoot. He sent her images of ammunition he purchased and texted her that he shot his grandmother. He directly told her, "Ima go shoot up a elementary school rn" after he did this.
Regulations and algorithms that can be created for Internet safety can be used to prevent stuff like this. On scratch.mit.edu, a comment with words that may sound cruel may be prevented from being sent, and a message notifying the commenter about it would be put near the comment box. This can be a start.
This can still be limited, since a commenter can still figure out a loophole and reword a threatening message, so other methods that could be implemented can include reporting. On Goodreads.com, you can "Flag" a comment that is against Goodreads policies. Anonymously "flagging" or reporting such issues can especially be helpful, since the threatening commenter will not know about your plans to "report," and would hence not try to plan against the flagging. Using report features may help suspend accounts that send threatening messages.
Help Youth Take Action
According to an interview, Cece was "curious" about the messages he was sending her, but she never knew if she should take them seriously, so once she heard about the shooting on the news, she got a friend to call U.S. authorities later than she wanted.
Being in such a difficult situation would most certainly put anyone in a dilemma, so spreading awareness about ways youth can take action can be helpful to preventing tragedies like the shooting.
We are already making progress on helping youth take action: an emoji with an eye in a speech bubble (👁️🗨️) is meant to empower youth to support anti-bullying policies. The emoji pretty much translates to "I am a witness to bullying." Continuing with progress like this emoji may help prevent killings.
We can encourage youth to attend workshops and take action by telling adults about threatening comments and reporting inappropriate messages.
Counseling
Not much is known about Ramos, but his background may tell us about his shooting. Cece said that she and Ramos had conversations about his relationships, and these conversations seem to imply a possibility that he did not have a strong relationship with his grandmother and his mother. I am not sure if this is true, but in case it is true, awareness about counseling and therapy hotlines can be spread, so mental and emotional health issues can be resolved to prevent such things from happening.
Many lives were lost. Many parents are grieving. Even with all that, there are still ways we can solve these problems. People do not have to die early, and history does not have to keep repeating itself. If we can take action, deliberate on ideas, and execute effective plans, the livelihoods of many people can be protected.
Works Cited:
Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas, "The Texas gunman texted a friend that he had shot his grandmother and was about to ‘shoot up’ a school," nytimes, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/us/texas-gunman-text.html
Rothenberg, Nicolas, Osbourne, Mark, et tal, "At least 19 children, 2 teachers dead after shooting at Texas elementary school," abc news, 2022, https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-elementary-school-reports-active-shooter-campus/story?id=84940951
Sunday, Alex, "Texas law enforcement official provides detailed timeline of deadly school shooting and police response," cbsnews, 2022, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-school-shooting-timeline-robb-elementary-school-attack/
SVRCINA, Whittaker, Michael, et tal, "Battlefield," Lover. Fighter., 2016
Yan, Holly, Kaur, Harmeet, et tal, "What we Know about the victims at Robb Elementary School," CNN, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/us/victims-uvalde-texas-school-shooting/index.html
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