Bandaids Don't Fix Bullet Holes
Gun violence has swallowed up school spaces wholly. Here are stories from the trenches of Denver, Colorado and *hopefully* a helpful guide into gun legislation and solutions.
I was desperate to write a piece about the hilarity of children as we all needed a dose of levity to our days and maybe to read about why teachers are still in the classrooms. I had been working on that piece for the month of February, but rage and complete despair took over the last month so here we are talking about *no drum roll needed*… school shootings.
In recent news:
On Thursday, March 23rd, I stood next to Kate Mimken, a mother of a sophomore and a senior at East High School, as we looked from the third floor of our state Capitol into the flurry of teenagers dressed in red. It was the second time we had been at the Capitol in the last three weeks. The day prior, at 9:45 a.m., two deans were shot on the first floor of East High School after a routine pat down of a student (more to come on that later). They were sent to the hospital where one was in surgery and now both are stable. I started chatting with Kate about the experience as a parent to have two children in a lockdown while a shooter is in the building.
“My daughter was texting me that she heard the gunshots from the assembly and from there, we just had to wait.” The emotion came crawling behind her eyes, as merely the day before both of her children sat in a lockdown fearing for their lives. “My husband is a kindergarten teacher, and he has told me that he hopes he comes home after work. One time a kid crawled under the desks and hit the security button which he had never shown them, they just knew. Kids are smart.” This hypervigilance has seeped into early childhood education. Children growing up in this generation have lockdowns in their DNA. We talked through how her son, a rising junior, wanted to continue going to East next year as that is where his friends are. She fears this will happen again, but her son has found a home in that school. That is exactly what a school should be: a home. But right now, they are war zones.
I smiled slightly with a revelation. “I never thought I would ask a teenager where I needed to be…” I turned to her and said. “I have no idea where we are meeting, but I will follow them anywhere.” The tables have turned from me rolling my eyes at students handing in late assignments and asking for their grade to bump up to me believing with everything fiber in me that I would follow them into war. The deep, cold, muddy abyss of war could be led by the 16-year-olds just below me, milling about the marbled corridors of a government building.
A former colleague of mine told me that during the lockdown on Wednesday, March 22nd, there were no locks on the auditorium doors so he held them shut in order to keep 1,500 students and staff at the assembly safe. This teacher is one of the most energetic, kind, and competent human beings I know, and in sharing his experience, his body was bereft of that technicolor goodness he brings to students daily. Seeing passionate educators crumble is something to behold. This job is terrifically hard without the threat of death present and seeing excellent educators terrified, deprived, and exhausted from YET ANOTHER trauma sends one into a helpless state. My former colleagues and I stood in a circle staring at the door to the Senate, watching teenagers get interviewed by major news channels and flag down their local legislators about the newest gun bills being written. They should have been in English class roasting their teacher about the coffee smudge on their sweater or calling them “sailor” because they wore a striped shirt. They should have been laughing, sharing sandwiches in the hallway, and chugging extra large Brisk iced teas against their teacher's wishes because those have so much sugar. Teachers should have been in their department offices laughing about their weekends and the cute thing their toddlers said during dinner. They should have been standing in front of a classroom, waxing poetic about the use of line breaks in Langston Hughes’ poetry or sharing the fact that every second, your body produces 25 million new cells meaning in 15 seconds, you will have produced more cells than there are people in the United States. Kids in science class should be in awe about how wonderful and powerful our bodies are, but their bodies most certainly are not being treated that way.
The combination of lacking mental health support and unregulated gun laws failed Lyle, the 17-year-old shooter on March 22nd. It failed him completely. I am not happy to hear of the death of a kid who never got the help he deserved. No one should be. That makes two deaths this year in the East community due to gun violence. These children should be riding their bikes in the summer and prank-calling people with popsicle sugar dripping down their chins. They should be at family barbeques and asking dumb questions in class that get a laugh. They should not be dead in cars and dead in forests. This is a grotesque and unchecked system that has bled into the daily lives of an institution meant for the learning and development of young minds. Now those young minds are the ones I find myself following.
We’ve been doing a lot of that recently: following the lead of adolescents. On February 13th, Luis Garcia, a beloved 16-year-old student at East High School was shot in his car on the campus of East High School in Denver, Colorado. Two weeks later, he died in the hospital. On March 3rd, students flooded the Capitol wearing red shirts saying, “Angels Against Gun Violence” and shouting, “WE WANT TO BE SAFE LIKE OUR SENATORS” as metal detectors had to be passed through in order to get into the Capitol itself. The irony abounded. You can read more here and here.
Now I am not a journalist, but I am a member of the East community and have been since 2008. I have written this piece multiple times, trying to figure out where to start. Do I just launch into the cold hard facts of the shootings in the last two weeks? Do I go all the way back to September when two students were shot in the 711 parking lot across the street? Do I talk about how SWAT showed up last fall and pointed their guns in students' and staff's faces to evacuate from a fake active shooter threat, followed by hours sitting on 90-degree turf? There have been two dead, and four shot this year at East. A place of great spirit, exuberance, creativity, and pride has seen pure evil this year, and I have no idea what to do about it. So I am taking to the page in an attempt to provide readers with a guide on gun legislation, stories from the trenches, and action steps in the hope that adults can alleviate some burden from the shoulders of children.
Potential Solutions
The answer here is polarizing as many within East and the community believe that the removal of SROs (security resource officers) was a key factor in this violence happening. There is a large number of teachers who believe quite the opposite as well. The Denver School Board voted to remove these officers after the George Floyd protests in 2020 but offered zero alternatives to replace the much-needed presence of resource officers in buildings. This alternative could have been trauma-informed/crisis-trained teams like Denver’s STAR program. Instead, the largest public school in Denver has a few security guards around the school who can issue low-level tickets with no experience in crisis management. This is not a school choice, but rather the strong arm of the School Board. Ultimately, it should never have been the job of a dean to pat down a student who was known to carry a weapon at a previous school in the first place, even if the Chief of Police said an officer most likely would not have done that search either. Okay…so then you put two unarmed, underpaid deans in harm's way? The Denver School Board has a lot to answer for by not providing alternative solutions to the safety of a large public high school. Here is their statement after the shooting on March 22nd. Superintendent Marrero held a press conference outside of East during their lockdown. You read that right, DURING. When asked about implementing metal detectors or machines that can swipe student ID cards at a meeting with teachers and the Union on Friday, March 24th, Marrero said that the district just “doesn’t have the money.” This is coming from a former colleague of mine who is a current teacher at East. One teacher asked, “well, how much are you spending on LEAP?” LEAP is our district’s framework for coaching and observing teachers (I am not getting into that squabble right now) but Lord knows there are funds to allocate for those safety measures. If it mattered enough to the United States, our military budget could roll into the protection of its inhabitants with gun reform laws and security precautions. The deans, Mr. Sinclair and Mr. Mason should have never been put in that position in the first place. That is not the school’s fault, that is a system error. Those deans are doing this job on a skeleton crew and STILL have smiles on their faces each day.
Teacher Demands
In order to return to the treacherous landscape educators find themselves in, there are a few demands that a veteran educator who recently left East compiled (generated by himself and some from the Union) attempting to negotiate with the district. Many of these are universal and could apply to most schools in the U.S. currently. Included are:
Safety plans that are universally shared with all adult staff that will be interacting with students
Better communication from the district to parents and staff about the lockdown instances as these should not be coming from the principal during a time of trauma
Partner with community-based organizations (GRASP, Padres y Jovenes Unidos, Servicios de la Raza)
Increased pay for Deans/Restorative Justice Coordinators/Support Staff (who were not included when teachers got enhanced pay scales after the strike in February 2019)
Create and implement an SEL curriculum that is mandatory for all students
Hire more deans, counselors, and mental health/support staff
Increase access to EAP and other mental health services for ALL DPS employees and therapy for our students
Create a safety vestibule for entrances to every DPS school: Westminster Public Schools has this for all of their schools (except maybe 1 or 2)
Install infrared sensing cameras in and outside of the school: These cameras use thermal imagery to detect weapons.
Enhance the scope and responsibilities for the DPS Security Personnel on campus
Have a radio on every floor or wing of the school
Two staffed entry point with a single point of entry
Install Metal Detectors
Bring back SROs
Don’t know where to start with gun laws in Colorado? Here are some links and resources to get you started:
Follow @studentsdemandaction on Instagram for national coverage of gun reform. If you are a high school or college student, you can join them here!
Follow @eaststudentsdemandaction on Instagram for local (Colorado) coverage and updates on protests/bills.
Follow @momsdemand for national updates on gun legislation and look into your local chapters within your state, you can join them here!
Find your Colorado legislator here
To send an email to your Colorado legislator, you can use this email template below with the subject: Vote YES on ALL Gun Violence Prevention Bills.
Email Template to copy and paste: Dear (Senator/Representative), My name is X from {City or 'Your District'}. I write to strongly urge you to vote YES on all five upcoming gun violence prevention bills including SB23-168, SB23-169, SB23-170, HB23-1219, and HB23-1230. These evidence-based, common-sense bills will undoubtedly save lives in Colorado. I am extremely concerned about the safety in our community, for myself, my family, my friends, and my neighbors. You have the ability to make a difference in Colorado by voting YES on each gun violence prevention bill this legislative session. With appreciation, Your Constituent, X
Current bills needing to be passed, check out the links below:
SB23-168: Gun Violence Victims' Access To Judicial System (PLCAA)
Passed in committee, moved on to second reading.SB23-169: Increasing Minimum Age To Purchase Firearms
Passed in committee, moved on to second reading.SB23-170: Extreme Risk Protection Order Petitions
Passed in committee, moved on to second reading.HB23-1219: Waiting Period to Deliver a Firearm
HB23-1230: Prohibit Assault Weapons in Colorado
Frankly, I feel utterly helpless. How are teachers and students supposed to return to school? Another day, another goddamn shooting. But if these children can walk up to their capitol, with signs that read “I should be reading Shakespeare, not obituaries”, we can most certainly get involved with our politicians and stay up to date with gun legislation.
Check in on current educators. If you read my last piece, I am sure you’ll ask them something great.
Ellie thank you for your wise and heartfelt article. I am so sorry for everyone’s pain, yes including the shooters. Sending healing to those injured and appreciation for those teachers and administrators who continue to show up every day.