Last week, America saw the largest school shooting incident since May of 2018.  a 15 year old student at Oxford High School, shot and killed 4 students and injured at least 11. On November 29th, he entered the Michigan school like any other school day. At 12:51 p.m. he went into a bathroom with his backpack and came out of the bathroom without his backpack and just a handgun. He then began walking the hallways, aiming and shooting at many students. He shot into classrooms and continued doing this for around 5 minutes (which probably felt like an eternity), and then entered another bathroom and put down his gun and surrendered to the police who had arrived.

First, we should applaud many for their actions in this horrible tragedy. The police and other first responders took around three minutes to get to the school and then about two minutes from arriving to stop the shooter. They controlled the situation and saved lives by rushing many to the hospital. Secondly, all the students should be applauded for their actions as they did everything right. Students have now come out and spoken about barricading the doors with whatever they could. Many of you may have seen the video of the shooter allegedly knocking on a classroom door and claiming to be a cop, thus the students did not let him in and escaped out the back window. This actually is untruthful, and was proven to actually have been a cop, but the students’ first instincts were correct and should be used as an example for all students across the world. Lastly, Tate Myre charged the shooter and attempted to disarm him. He is a hero for his actions and his life was taken from him in the process. There is now a petition to name the school’s football field after him.

As many lawsuits are now being brought forward against the school and state, we should take a closer look at how this mass and terrible shooting could have been prevented. The perpetrator made many threats on social media and brandished a gun frequently and seriously. This was even made known to the school who met with his parents (who now face involuntary murder charges) the day of the shooting. Despite this, he was still allowed to go to school and commit this act of violence. I think that yes, we should all be upset with this situation and yes threats should 100% be taken more seriously. But I also think that it is important that we stray away from pointing the finger every which way and to come together in these times of struggle. I cannot imagine what it is like for any of those people that witnessed the shooting or the families that were affected by it.

I chose not to use the name of the shooter on purpose as I think we should stop using the names of school shooters and other murderers in our news. I do not think it is right to give these people any recognition. I hope this event advocates for change and I hope that America, as a community, can come together in these times of trouble.