New Math

 Ah, the school shootings. Seems like I need to take up a separate space somewhere on Los Internet to track them all. This time it was St. Louis, Missouri. A gunman entered the school at, perhaps ironically or maybe prophetically, 9:11 AM. Carrying an AR-15 and six hundred rounds of ammunition, he was not there for picture day. He was there to kill. Before police responded, he took the lives of sixty-one-year-old Jean Kuczka, a mother of five who taught health and physical education, and sophomore Alexzandria Bell, fifteen, who loved art and dance. The rest of the staff and students were able to barricade themselves inside classrooms, waited for authorities to arrive. When they did, they found the murderer barricaded himself in a classroom. When he shot at police, they returned fire and killed him. This all took approximately twelve minutes. “The drills worked,” DeAndre Davis, director of safety and security for St. Louis Public Schools, said Tuesday. “The kids worked. They did exactly what they were supposed to do. They barricaded those doors. They got away from those windows, and when it was time to evacuate, they did the best they could. They got out of that building.”

This is what we are considering a "success." Three dead, including the shooter, and "only" four others injured, two by gunfire. 

Meanwhile in Florida, an elementary school teacher was arrested on charges of possession of a firearm on school grounds and child endangerment. Two fourth-grade students at Chiefland Elementary School discovered a gun in the teacher's car during school hours after she had sent them to get her medication for her.

Another success? Nobody died in this one. Children were in danger, sure, but maybe as much from the medication as the gun. But considering it was in Florida, I think we know the bar may be a little low. This is the state where just a few years ago the governor signed into law a measure that would allow more armed teachers in that state's schools. Wasn't "good guys with guns" part of the plan? Maybe first year teacher Miss Ehlers was just a little too prepared. “While it is extremely disheartening to ever arrest a teacher, this type of violation that endangers the safety of our students cannot be tolerated,” said Sheriff Bobby McCallum. “Thankfully these fourth-grade students had parents that taught them about gun safety and but for that reason, we may have avoided a dangerous and sad situation today.”

Guns and schools=Dangerous and sad. I guess I don't have the will to argue that equation. All a part of the New Math.