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OTHER VOICES: Former North Van resident lives with reality of school shootings

Columbine. Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook. Parkland. And now, Santa Fe, Texas. I live three exits up the road from where last week’s active shooter tragedy unfolded. Three exits.
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Columbine. Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook. Parkland.

And now, Santa Fe, Texas.

I live three exits up the road from where last week’s active shooter tragedy unfolded.

Three exits.

“Three exits away” is what lies between me and the fear that has permeated my thoughts upon becoming a teacher in the United States. This is not how things were supposed to be.

I grew up in Lynn Valley. I spent summers at the Headwaters and Lynn Canyon, swimming at 30 Foot. I rode my bike to Alan Market and got Slurpees from the 7-Eleven on Mountain Highway.

I was raised by an elementary school principal and university dean. I never once saw a gun and never, ever worried about something bad happening to me at school.

Sadly, I fear the students I teach in Houston, Texas, are not having the same childhood experiences I got to have in North Vancouver.

A lockdown magnet allows me to keep my classroom door locked, but it can still be opened. I just have to take the magnet off and then the door is locked, which saves me from having to fumble with keys during a crisis.

Door jams can be pushed under the classroom door making it harder for someone to get in.

And there’s rope taped to the inside of my cabinets which allows someone to be able to hide and keep the cabinets closed from the inside.

Just writing it out still seems so unreal that any of this is necessary.

I am a special education teacher at a Title I school. That means that more than 60 per cent of the students at my school live below the poverty line and receive assistance in the way of free lunch from the government.

Schools are big in Texas; more students and greater need. I became a special education teacher to be the voice for a demographic of students who have yet to learn how to use their own.

After years of working as a behavior therapist in the relative comfort of local area school districts, I wanted to be the teacher that helped others see the ability in disabilities. I moved to my family home in Texas to pursue that dream, and now the career I once loved has shifted to be one that includes constant worry about what may happen each day I enter my school.  

As a Canadian living in Texas, my views on gun control and gun safety are not shared by many. NRA memberships abound here and gun shows are hotter tickets than sporting events.

I know people who proudly admit to having unlocked guns in every room of their home, and have “Come and Take It” bumper stickers, alluding to a Texas colonel who refused to give up a cannon to the approaching Mexican army during the Battle of Gonzales, adorned to every car (or truck) they own.

As a teacher who just wants to feel safe working in a school in the United States, I do not understand those who believe these shootings are simply a result of not having a Godly presence in schools, or the loss of family time. After each tragedy, the wrong arguments are being made.

The argument should not be about stronger gun control laws, or what the parents should have noticed that could have prevented it. The argument that needs to be made is why students are still dying and nothing is being done?

I do not want to see another Facebook post with the words “thoughts and prayers” or another hashtag trending as a result of another school shooting tragedy. Although the support is uplifting and much appreciated, it will only last until another school experiences a similar fate, and the hashtag will then need to start with a different school name.

Change starts with action. As an educator in Texas, I now see it as part of my job description to help elicit that change.

As an outsider, perhaps I can sensitize those who have grown complacent at the mention of gun control to a different point of view. I do not believe that stricter gun control alone will be the solution, but I do believe it is a good place to start. 

School shootings are not just a Texas problem; they are widespread throughout the United States, yet not in other first world countries. Why is that? Why have they become such an epidemic here, in what most view as the most powerful nation in the world?

The best answer I have is I do not know. All I do know is that I am scared to go to school and I am scared for what comes next. It is my hope that what comes next includes solutions that keep us all safe.

Deanna Sherrill is a former North Vancouver resident now living in Clear Lake, Texas.