What This Black Woman Thinks About the Florida School Shooting
First and foremost, my prayers and condolences go out to the victims, the victim’s families, and all those who are directly affected by the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
That said, I think that this school shooting follows the same pattern as most wherein some seriously mentally disturbed white male middle class kid(s) whom have displayed numerous “red flags” that were somehow “missed,” manages to get their hands on an assault weapon(s), walks into a suburban high school, begins shooting and killing as many people as humanly possible (with most dying by their own hands which surprisingly wasn’t the case in this shooting), thus invoking the some old song and dance about “gun control” in the media and by the same idiots do nothing politicians who have run this country into the ground.
As a black woman from an extremely low-income background, and thus I am very accustomed to inner-city (which were located in low income neighborhoods) high minority public schools, this really makes no sense to me.
When I entered high school back in 2001 there were ALWAYS metal detectors in my schools (I attended several high schools as my mother moved a lot). It wasn’t a pleasant experience sometimes, but I can definitely say that there has NEVER been a school shooting at either of the high schools I attended.
I believe that the mother of one of the victims is right about having metal detectors in EVERY school. I wish someone had started pushing for what is standard practice in low-income neighborhood schools to become the standard for all schools. So, there is a definitely a race and class element to many of these school shootings that I believe has (deliberately) been left out of the conversation and one that no one has really bothered to addressed.
Banning guns IS NOT the answer nor will it address the real issues at play here such as high levels of accepted and encouraged societal violence, racism, classism, celebrity worship, shameless fame chasing, and selfish individualism.
PREVENTATIVE DEVICES AND PRECAUTIONS is the answer plain and simple.
Moreover, the media must stop giving these monsters attention.
EVERY TIME one of these ever-frequent shootings occur the shooter(s) GET the attention they crave. While I understand the need to inform the public the media blitz usually becomes extremely focused on the shooter(s), how much they weighed at birth, what they said when they were two, what was the name of their first pet, what colors they wore last week, whether or not they are cock-eyed (I think you get the point). And for what? Will it change anything? Will it bring the victims back? This kind of attention certainly doesn’t prevent these situations, (or we wouldn’t keep having these shootings) but rather, encourages it.
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Latagia Copeland-Tyronce, MSW, CADAS, is a longtime parental rights and social justice advocate, child welfare reform activist, writer/blogger, and journalist whose work has been featured in BlackMattersUs and Rise Magazine. She is the founder, president, and executive director of the National African American Families First and Preservation Association (NAFPA) a groundbreaking 501c4 nonprofit origination, the first of its kind, devoted exclusively to the protection and preservation of the African American (Black) Family though policy and legislative advocacy.
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