Ten dead –
13 wounded.
Once again flags on public buildings across
the nation fly at half-staff in memory of the students gunned down in the
latest school massacre by a disaffected classmate.
He
was a quiet guy one distraught student told a television reporter. He never
caused trouble was the response of another student.
But 17-year old Dimitrios Pagourtzis was
clearly troubled. On a day when it was
89 degrees with matching humidity in south Texas, the student who inflicted
this carnage on his fellow students and teachers at Santa Fe High School was
wearing a trench coat. He had been
wearing that same coat for weeks and never took it off during school hours reported
another student. Pagourtzis was also described as a loner. At one point he was approached by a coach who
talked to him about the body odor emanating from the coat he wore every
day despite the heat. But the shooter
was never required to take it off.
This is a tragedy that should have been
prevented. A loner, refusing to take off
a trench coat, even in summer-like temperatures, should have been an obvious red
flag. Did we learn nothing from the
Columbine carnage?
Students must be allowed to express their
individuality insisted one talking head on a 24-hour news channel. Really!
Surely there is a better way to express individuality.
Teachers and administrators are hesitant
to restrict such apparel for fear of lawsuits from special interest groups and
ACLU attorneys who often circle like vultures over cash-strapped school districts
when any attempt is made to impose even reasonable dress codes. Everywhere I have traveled in the
world—Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East—students wear uniforms, even in
desperately poor countries in South Asia and Africa, where students often walk
considerable distances to school without wearing shoes. Do we need to rethink advocating, if not for
school uniforms, at least for common sense dress codes?
Then there is another obvious question—where were
the parents? Did they not question why
their son was wearing a trench coat mimicking the Columbine mass
murderers? And why was the key to a gun
safe not hidden from their troubled teen?
Some states impose felony penalties on
adults who fail to secure their firearms from children under 18. This should be either a federal law or
uniformly imposed by all states. Even
the NRA advocates securing firearms from minors.
Banning guns is politically not viable. Metal detectors might help detect a student
bringing a firearm to school. Afterall, we can't board an airplane without going through such scrutiny. But the
best thing we as a society can do is to confront a troubled young person who
exhibits obvious mental health issues and allow school officials to intercede
if parents won’t, without educators having to fear lawsuits. The recent Parkland massacre should have been our lesson learned.
How many more students and teachers must
die—how much more heartache must we endure as a nation before our elected
officials, both state and federal, finally take action to address these issues and provide educators with the funds and common sense legislation to help solve these problems.
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