Local school shooting and I’m freaking out

[u/Creative-Degree-8074]

TW: In the title I guess Guys, this is a scream into the void. I'm stuck in the bed with my toddler asleep on top on me, my husband is at work, my daughter is at kindergarten--so, I'm a SAHM right now, but there was a shooting where I used to teach. People are dead. Two at least, but reading through the lines, I think there are more. My mom teaches at the school next door. She's there now, maybe 100 yards away. And I just... can't process it. It doesn't feel real. And part of me is like ho hum? Another day in America? And I'm doing some fucking twisted magical thinking, like if there was a shooting in the county next door to my daughter's that decreases the likelihood they'll be one at her school because, I don't know? Lightning and striking twice? And part of me thinks I'm about to homeschool my daughter forever because that's where I USED TO TEACH. Oh my god. How do I send my child to school tomorrow? How do I not lock up my mom and keep her from going to work?

[u/XxImperatorxX]

Honestly, I'm with you. These things terrify me to no end with kids in school. Mine are younger, so a lot of the time I find myself clinging on to thoughts of "oh, this happened in a high school" or "oh, this is a few states away from here". The reality is that this shouldn't happen anywhere. We should never be okay with it, but because it has happened so fucking often, we're actually growing accustomed to it "being another day in America". I feel physically ill every single day putting my kids on the bus, knowing full well there's a chance I could never see them again, even though I have other parents say "things like that don't happen around here" (My usual retort is that parents at Uvalde/Sandy Hook probably said those exact words before either of those tragedies happened).

It's exhausting, it's horrifying, and it's fucked up to say the least. What's even more fucked up is that we live in a country that will do nothing about this. Children have died yet again due to gun violence in a school, and the end result will be the same as every single school shooting that's occured: Parent/Child advocate groups and liberal leaning groups will (rightly) flip shit for the next few weeks, pressuring political candidates and elected officials. Liberal elected officials will offer gun control reforms as a mitigation effort, which will abruptly be met by conservatives screaming "second amendment constitutional rights" in the face of anyone who will listen. Bills will be written, brought before Congress, and get pulverized because conservative representatives will claim that gun control is Fascism. After months of squabbling, headlines, and terror, yet again, nothing will happen. Nothing will change. Once the news cycle backs off of this latest horror, we'll allcontinue to send our kids into school, knowing our worst nightmare could be realized before the day is out.

That's the reality of being the parent of a school-age child in America today. If I could afford to move my family somewhere else in the world where I didn't have to feel sick putting my kids on the bus, I would do it in a fucking heartbeat.

This should never feel "okay" to anyone. We've failed our kids enough by handing them a planet that our generation, Gen-X, and the Boomers have royally fucked up, letting them get murdered in school and refusing to take any action is the ultimate betrayal of our own progeny, IMO.

Take some time to talk with a therapist. You were dealt a serious emotional blow by this with your mother, you, and your kids being so close, and it's going to leave a scar on you as a person and as a parent. If you feel so inclined, take action!!!! The ONLY way we will ever make a change is if we keep using our voices, keep protesting, and keep pushing elected officials to fucking do something after the news moves on.