South African in the US: “Today I Taught Children the Same Age as those Murdered…”

An 18-year-old Texas gunman, Salvador Ramos, on Tuesday (24 May) shot his grandmother in the face (she survived), and then – armed and dangerous – evaded a school security officer to kill 21 people at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, rural USA, the worst school massacre in the US in almost 10 years. The fatalities included 19 school children and two teachers who bravely tried to protect them. Here are the raw, painful and honest thoughts of award-winning South African writer Charlene Smith, who was teaching in a classroom in the US yesterday…

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Yesterday I taught children of the same age as those murdered (on Tuesday). 19 children slaughtered in a country that fights to protect the lives of fetuses but not children already born.

I was looking at something in the NYT, or maybe it was WaPo about, “how to discuss mass shootings with your children” – and I couldn’t read it; I thought WTF, this is an abomination.

In NO OTHER COUNTRY of the world do parents take their 6/8/14-year-olds aside and explain murder to them. “Now sweetie, when you go to your underfunded school and are taught education that belongs in the 1950s, you must know that bad people may come in and will open fire with semi-automatics that will fire anything from 45 to 600 rounds a minute, often with bullets that explode, so as in Texas, your body will be shredded and unidentifiable and we, your parents, will have to give DNA so they can identify the remains of your small body.”

I’m not in a good headspace. I’m going to bed early and need to increase my meditation. I am so angry.

***

US President Joe Biden agrees. Yesterday he tweeted: “These kinds of mass shootings rarely happen elsewhere in the world. Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God’s name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with it? It’s time to turn this pain into action.”

Biden said: “The idea that an 18-year-old can walk into a store and buy assault weapons is just wrong. What in God’s name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone?

“As a nation we must ask: When in God’s name will we stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name will we do what needs to be done? I’m sick and tired of it. We have to act.”

With so many US television shows featuring guns, Charlene – who did a Masters on the role of video games in school shootings – says: “I was at the library yesterday, all the new fiction was about murder; you turn on Netflix, which I hate, and it is all about murder, we need to consider the impact on our young. Video games that allow them to be first person shooters who kill.”

The long, long list of school shootings in the USA

Charlene says: “This list (below) is also incomplete, because I did a study on the role of video games in school shootings for my Masters (not as high as I thought, but access to guns was the factor in every one, and poor parent-child relationships, all of these kids had long shown signs of poor mental health), and there were around 8 shootings before Columbine, if memory serves me well, the first was in 1978, Columbine was April 20, 1999 – so look at how this has worsened, with more than 900 school shootings in the last year alone.

“In every school, children died. In many, teachers died. In all, police officers are on the premises or in front in patrol cars – in all, Parkland and in Texas, the police failed to enter, cowering outside as single gunmen murdered. In Texas this week the police were outside while he was in for 40-60 minutes – they shot him through the door, so God knows if they killed anyone injured too…”

School shootings happened at every one of these US schools

This list was compiled by Charlene Smith:

Thurston High School.
Columbine High School.
Heritage High School.
Deming Middle School.
Fort Gibson Middle School.
Buell Elementary School.
Lake Worth Middle School.
University of Arkansas.
Junipero Serra High School.
Santana High School.
Bishop Neumann High School.
Pacific Lutheran University.
Granite Hills High School.
Lew Wallace High School.
Martin Luther King, Jr. High School.
Appalachian School of Law.
Washington High School.
Conception Abbey.
Benjamin Tasker Middle School.
University of Arizona.
Lincoln High School.
John McDonogh High School.
Red Lion Area Junior High School.
Case Western Reserve University.
Rocori High School.
Ballou High School.
Randallstown High School.
Bowen High School.
Red Lake Senior High School.
Harlan Community Academy High School.
Campbell County High School.
Milwee Middle School.
Roseburg High School.
Pine Middle School.
Essex Elementary School.
Duquesne University.
Platte Canyon High School.
Weston High School.
West Nickel Mines School.
Joplin Memorial Middle School.
Henry Foss High School.
Compton Centennial High School.
Virginia Tech.
Success Tech Academy.
Miami Carol City Senior High School.
Hamilton High School.
Louisiana Technical College.
Mitchell High School.
E.O. Green Junior High School.
Northern Illinois University.
Lakota Middle School.
Knoxville Central High School.
Willoughby South High School.
Henry Ford High School.
University of Central Arkansas.
Dillard High School.
Dunbar High School.
Hampton University.
Harvard College.
Larose-Cut Off Middle School.
International Studies Academy.
Skyline College.
Discovery Middle School.
University of Alabama.
DeKalb School.
Deer Creek Middle School.
Ohio State University.
Mumford High School.
University of Texas.
Kelly Elementary School.
Marinette High School.
Aurora Central High School.
Millard South High School.
Martinsville West Middle School.
Worthing High School.
Millard South High School.
Highlands Intermediate School.
Cape Fear High School.
Chardon High School.
Episcopal School of Jacksonville.
Oikos University.
Hamilton High School.
Perry Hall School.
Normal Community High School.
University of South Alabama.
Banner Academy South.
University of Southern California.
Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Apostolic Revival Center Christian School.
Taft Union High School.
Osborn High School.
Stevens Institute of Business and Arts.
Hazard Community and Technical College.
Chicago State University.
Lone Star College-North.
Cesar Chavez High School.
Price Middle School.
University of Central Florida.
New River Community College.
Grambling State University.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ossie Ware Mitchell Middle School.
Ronald E. McNair Discovery Academy.
North Panola High School.
Carver High School.
Agape Christian Academy.
Sparks Middle School.
North Carolina A&T State University.
Stephenson High School.
Brashear High School.
West Orange High School.
Arapahoe High School.
Edison High School.
Liberty Technology Magnet High School.
Hillhouse High School.
Berrendo Middle School.
Purdue University.
South Carolina State University.
Los Angeles Valley College.
Charles F. Brush High School.
University of Southern California.
Georgia Regents University.
Academy of Knowledge Preschool.
Benjamin Banneker High School.
D. H. Conley High School.
East English Village Preparatory Academy.
Paine College.
Georgia Gwinnett College.
John F. Kennedy High School.
Seattle Pacific University.
Reynolds High School.
Indiana State University.
Albemarle High School.
Fern Creek Traditional High School.
Langston Hughes High School.
Marysville Pilchuck High School.
Florida State University.
Miami Carol City High School.
Rogers State University.
Rosemary Anderson High School.
Wisconsin Lutheran High School.
Frederick High School.
Tenaya Middle School.
Bethune-Cookman University.
Pershing Elementary School.
Wayne Community College.
J.B. Martin Middle School.
Southwestern Classical Academy.
Savannah State University.
Harrisburg High School.
Umpqua Community College.
Northern Arizona University.
Texas Southern University.
Tennessee State University.
Winston-Salem State University.
Mojave High School.
Lawrence Central High School.
Franklin High School.
Muskegon Heights High School.
Independence High School.
Madison High School.
Antigo High School.
University of California-Los Angeles.
Jeremiah Burke High School.
Alpine High School.
Townville Elementary School.
Vigor High School.
Linden McKinley STEM Academy.
June Jordan High School for Equity.
Union Middle School.
Mueller Park Junior High School.
West Liberty-Salem High School.
University of Washington.
King City High School.
North Park Elementary School.
North Lake College.
Freeman High School.
Mattoon High School.
Rancho Tehama Elementary School.
Aztec High School.
Wake Forest University.
Italy High School.
NET Charter High School.
Marshall County High School.
Sal Castro Middle School.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
Great Mills High School
Central Michigan University
Huffman High School
Frederick Douglass High School
Forest High School
Highland High School
Dixon High School
Santa Fe High School
Noblesville West Middle School
University of North Carolina Charlotte
STEM School Highlands Ranch
Edgewood High School
Palm Beach Central High School
Providence Career & Technical Academy
Fairley High School (school bus)
Canyon Springs High School
Dennis Intermediate School
Florida International University
Central Elementary School
Cascade Middle School
Davidson High School
Prairie View A & M University
Altascocita High School
Central Academy of Excellence
Cleveland High School
Robert E. Lee High School
Cheyenne South High School
Grambling State University
Blountsville Elementary School
Holmes County, Mississippi (school bus)
Prescott High School
College of the Mainland
Wynbrooke Elementary School
UNC Charlotte
Riverview Florida (school bus)
Second Chance High School
Carman-Ainsworth High School
Williwaw Elementary School
Monroe Clark Middle School
Central Catholic High School
Jeanette High School
Eastern Hills High School
DeAnza High School
Ridgway High School
Reginald F. Lewis High School
Saugus High School
Pleasantville High School
Waukesha South High School
Oshkosh High School
Catholic Academy of New Haven
Bellaire High School
North Crowley High School
McAuliffe Elementary School
South Oak Cliff High School
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Sonora High School
Western Illinois University
Oxford High School
Robb Elementary School

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CHARLENE SMITH is a South African journalist and author of 14 published books about South Africa. She is Nelson Mandela’s authorised biographer and presently lives and works in Boston, USA. Visit Charlene’s website here: www.charlenesmithwriter.com or follow Charlene on Facebook: CharleneSmithWrites.

The Texas school teachers who died trying to save their pupilshttps://t.co/ZNCbX7P1hv

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 26, 2022

The idea that an 18-year-old can walk into a store and buy assault weapons is just wrong.

What in God’s name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone?

— President Biden (@POTUS) May 25, 2022