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Both sides of the aisle can agree the recent spate of school shootings in the U.S. represents tragedies of the worst proportion, with families and communities torn apart in their wake. The schools themselves become permanent scars, reminders of the events and the carnage. So what should happen to the buildings where these tragedies occurred? Straight Arrow News contributor Jordan Reid has an idea but wants to make sure we don’t take our eye off gun reform legislation:
At Robb Elementary, the question of whether the building should be demolished is complicated by the fact that for many in Uvalde, the school is a symbol of the history of the town’s Mexican-American residents. The school dates back to a time when Mexican-American children were segregated from their white counterparts who mostly lived on the town’s east side and sent to schools there. Residents worked for decades to improve conditions at Robb Elementary, and some are understandably conflicted.
Should buildings where school shootings have taken place be razed to the ground and rebuilt? It does seem like the right response to minimize the emotional triggers that students and staff may associate with their learning environment, for sure. To ask those children and teachers to ever again step foot into a building where they experienced such horror is unthinkable.
But the fact that legislation had to be created around this situation, as if it weren’t an outlier, but rather a certain eventuality? That’s the problem. That’s what we should be focusing on.
And so I’ll close with this: Take down the schools. Rebuild them into wonderful places that bring to mind hope, connection, education, and the future. But for god’s sake, don’t let those efforts distract from what really needs to be done, and because it bears repeating, what really needs to be done is reducing access to military-grade weapons. Enough with the half-measures already. Just enough.
