How to Prevent Another Uvalde: 10 Things To Do No Matter Your Political Persuasion

When the chairperson of the English department of Scarsdale High School whispered to me, “Did you hear about the school shooting in Connecticut?” on December 14, 2012, I froze.  As she proceeded to tell me about the class of first graders that was killed that day, hot tears and acidic nausea bubbled up from the same pit of grief, anguish – and in the coming days, fear.

 Like Newtown, where the mass shooting took place, Scarsdale, where I was teaching, is a wealthy suburb of New York City.  Like some of my students, Adam Lanza, the gunman who later committed suicide, struggled with mental health and relationships.  Just weeks after the Newtown massacre, one of my particularly troubled students approached me after class and ripped a failing quiz paper into dozens of pieces in front of me without saying a word.  His brown eyes appeared deadened inside; he, too, struggled to maintain cordial relations with his peers.

 Yet, when I brought this incident to the attention of my supervisor, he brushed my concerns aside, saying that this boy “just” sold drugs and escaped from the vice principal’s questioning by climbing out a bathroom window – but that I had nothing to worry about.

 Easier said than done.

 I continued to worry, both about my own safety and that of my other students in this boy’s class.  I had nightmares about what I would do when this boy came to school with a gun one day.  Thank goodness that never happened: this boy’s mother hired for-profit kidnappers to take him to “wilderness camp” several weeks later and he did not return to school that year.  (But I had nothing to worry about, right?)

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Nevertheless, before fate in the form of a concerned mom intervened, I’m honest enough to admit that I began to consider alternate ways to protect myself and my students in the face of an apathetic administration.  I asked my brother, a federal law enforcement officer, whether I might be able to purchase a legal firearm and bring it into the classroom with me for protection.  My brother explained that obtaining a license for a firearm in New York City was practically impossible – not to mention a really, really, bad idea.  Eventually, I came around to that point of view and once the student disappeared from my class, I never considered arming myself again, including during my five years teaching on campus at Bronx Community College.

I’m sharing this story with you today not for its thankfully anticlimactic ending.  Rather, I hope that it might convey how terror can temporarily transform generally progressive-thinking people to embrace policies that they might never have considered in the absence of that terror.  I’m sharing this story so that we might have empathy for “the other side” as the nation grapples with how to prevent another mass shooting.

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As we all struggle to come to terms with yet more acts of terror perpetrated by deranged young men across the country during the past several weeks, many states are attempting to pass new restrictions on guns while the U.S. Congress remains gridlocked. I’m not here to tell you what to think or do to prevent another mass shooting.  I don’t presume to know your politics – but I do know that no matter what your politics are, there’s something you can do, especially to protect the students and staff in your local school.  If each of us takes one small step to prevent another school shooting, then perhaps we can save lives.

So, I’ve compiled as non-partisan a list as I could to suggest ten actions that even the staunchest Second Amendment advocates could endorse and adopt:

1.    Make sure that there’s only one unlocked door into your child’s school.  Make share that doors lock automatically after being open.  (Robb Elementary’s door in Uvalde did not.)

2.    Inquire whether teachers – the ones who have the most face-to-face contact with students – can report directly to mental health or public safety officers their concerns about a student’s mental health anonymously.  This is the only way to ensure that concerns raised by a teacher like me will not be dismissed as irrational by an administrator eager to sweep problems under the rug – and that such an administrator will not take punitive action against a teacher who does raise such a concern. 

3.    SaferWatch app is one such anonymous reporting method that the public can use; if you think it’s right for your community, let others know about it.  (I have no affiliation with this app.)

4.    Write your legislators to demand whatever legal remedy you believe should be taken in their chamber to prevent future school shootings.  You can find the contact information for your state and federal legislators here.

5.    Ask what your school is doing to foster a supportive community; this is key to decreasing the social isolation that often gives rise to violent extremism.

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6.    Talk to your child about whether they would tell an adult if they heard another student discussing an intent to bring a gun to school.  Only about half of students in one Alfred University poll confessed that they’d do so.

7.    If you own a gun, make sure that it’s locked in a gun safe separate from the bullets.  Do not give your children access to these safes or the combinations.  Most children will not become school shooters.  But many unlucky children die from accidental discharge or suicide by gun.  According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, “in 2020, firearm-related injuries became the leading cause of death” among children aged 1 to 19.”

8.    Advocate for more mental health counseling in your child’s school.  While the American School Counselor Association recommends a student: counselor ratio of 250:1, the national average is 450:1. Join your PTA or attend your local school board meetings to demand that your child’s school meets the ASCA recommendation – or better!

9.    Lobby your legislator to vote for Extreme Risk Laws.  “These laws create a legal process by which law enforcement, family members, and, in some states, educators can petition a court to prevent a person from having access to firearms when there is evidence that they are at serious risk of harming themselves or others.”  Both the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s two largest unions of teachers, endorse the passage of Extreme Risk Laws.

10.     As many of us know, the guns used in Uvalde, Newtown and elsewhere were acquired legally. However, right now, sales between unlicensed parties can be conducted legally without a background check.  The AFT and NEA “recommend that states and the federal government act to pass laws that require background checks on all gun sales….”

While I have no affiliation with Everytown for Gun Safety, the authors of the report from which Tips 9 and 10 originates – and I want to be transparent about the fact that this non-profit organization is opposed by the NRA – its report seems exceedingly “common-sensical.”  You can find it here: https://everytownresearch.org/report/preventing-gun-violence-in-american-schools/#who-we-are.  And if you disagree with these last two points, hopefully, there’s something in the preceding eight others that you can jump on board with.  To prevent another ColumbineSandyHookVirginiaTechParklandSantaFeRedLakeUvaldeAndTheListGoesOn….

Wishing you safety this summer,