Last Thursday, something we’ve watched happen far too often in this country happened in Perry, Iowa.
When I say “watched,” I mean it. I’m guilty of it, too. After each school shooting, there’s a collective period of disgust and mourning before it’s on to the next thing. Life goes on for me, but not for the people whose lives were ripped apart.
I went to Iowa State, and plenty of fellow Cyclones choose to student teach in Perry or go on to work there. As a journalism student, I didn’t have too many friends majoring in education. Still, you meet people at athletic events, out at the bars or in random elective courses, and I spent much of Thursday morning waiting to hear if someone I knew well or just in passing had been killed.
On top of that, one of my best friends works at a hospital that several victims of the shooting were taken to. I was thinking of her and the important work she does all day.
A quote I read in a story from the Des Moines Register shortly after the shooting took place stuck with me for hours after.
Reporting from the Register explained that Erica Jolliff said that her daughter, who is a ninth grader, was rushed from school grounds that morning but was safe. However, she was still looking for Ahmir, her son who was in sixth grade.
“I just want to know that he’s safe and OK,” Jolliff said to the Register. “They won’t tell me nothing.”
Soon thereafter, 11-year old Ahmir Jolliff was identified as the lone casualty of the shooting (outside of the perpetrator).
Plenty of tributes have been written about Ahmir now, and you can find those with a simple Google search. By all accounts, he was awesome.
He didn’t have to be a good kid for this to sting, though. Good kid, bad kid, well-behaved kid, obnoxious kid – whatever. He was just a kid.
And as these shootings keep piling up and we keep moving on as a country, there’s a recurring theme that needs to be reckoned with – adults failing children. In these cases, it leads to death.
We should all raise up the heroic adults who did step up for those kids, including school staff, law enforcement and members of the community. Specifically, Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger is now in stable condition after undergoing surgery all day Thursday. He put his life on the line to try and talk the shooter out of his decision and buy time for his students.
In my opinion, many of the adults that are failing kids routinely reside in Des Moines and Washington, D.C. And for people who spend time arguing about guns or mental health or “politicizing,” how about all of the above? There should be no stone unturned and nothing considered untouchable. It’s past time to actually give a you-know-what.
It happened here, everyone. I have younger siblings, and I want them to come home each day. Plenty of you have kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, etc., who are still in school.
I’ll be the first to say that I need to care more. I hope others will join me.
