E-mail Mary Jane Marvel
Past Rantings and Ravings
01-19-11 Moving Back
11-03-09 The What? (a few years old)
02-11-09 30 years of Mondays
03-10-07 Happiness, Internet-Style
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| 30 years of Mondays |
Monday February 11, 2009, Mary Jane Marvel
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This January 29, no one loaded a rifle fitted with a scope and aimed it at an elementary school across the street. No one shot at school children like so many sitting ducks on an open playground. No one murdered a school principal and a custodian who were using their bodies as human shields to remove young students from the line of fire.
But 30 years ago, a sixteen-year-old girl stayed home from school because it was Monday and she wanted some excitement. Brenda Spencer killed two and injured eight that day in 1979, in a suburb less than a mile from my junior high school.
During the six-and-a-half hour SWAT stand-off, hundreds of my pre-teen classmates and I sat locked in our classrooms wondering why we were not allowed to go home at dismissal time. I don't remember the explanation given, but teachers pulled out board games and played music while we lounged around waiting to be released. Little did we know that at the same time, terrified seven-, eight- and nine-year olds huddled, locked in their classrooms, wondering why someone was shooting at them.
That summarized our community's 15 minutes of fame. Every time a radio station played the Boomtown Rat's tribute to the incident, "I Don't Like Mondays," I would recall where I was, who I was with, the name of the girl, the name of the school. But it wasn't until this year, the 30th anniversary, that I thought about how the event applied to me.
After that day, I never felt completely safe at school. Or anywhere else public, for that matter. Anyone with a gun could decide to "liven things up" or "show people what it felt like to feel unprotected."
I pondered: millions of people experience a traumtic childhood or feel unloved, but what pushes one of them over the edge? What causes one person to hurt other people instead of herself? Or to destroy lives instead of property?
Out of all the destructive ways to act upon one's anger, thank G-d most people don't choose murder. How many people do you know with "anger issues"? I know lots.
Someone failed us, whether society or parents or teachers or whoever. But rather than point the finger and blame someone, we need to make sure we teach OUR kids appropriate ways to deal with, diffuse and express anger. Instead of shooting guns at schools.
Because 30 years from now, we can count how many more school shootings there have been, or how many less. I vote for less.
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