Why Create Fiction About School Shootings?
How could we not?
While we were in the middle of our summer production schedule, the New York Times published a piece by Richard Russo (excerpts in the banner above) titled How Does a Novelist Write About a School Shooting?
In his piece, Russo describes an instance when he was confronted by a reader at one of the stops on his book tour. “How could you?” asked a woman who believed he was benefitting from other people’s grief by writing a novel about gun violence in schools. Russo writes that this question played on his mind. He could see her side. But ultimately, he felt sickened by an excruciating anxiety for the safety of his own kids, and thus concluded, “How could I not?”
Russo’s piece resonated with us immensely. We find ourselves in a world where intruder drills and backpack armor are becoming the normalized. There is nothing normal about this. The school—a place children go to grow, learn, become strong individuals—is now a threat to the lives of young people. It is a battle zone ridden with trauma and fear. And as our nation’s leaders and lawmakers put profits first when considering solutions to school safety, they are placing the burden on schools to adapt. At what cost?
As socially conscious media creators, we felt compelled to add our voice to the national conversation. How can we not partake in the noise that needs to be made in order to bring an end to mass gun violence? How could we not?
Our piece of advocacy media is one narrative example on the subject of gun violence and school shootings. Below are a few others, and surely there are more on the way.
