On the Sandy Hook and School Shootings/Tragedies

Hello All,

For those of you out of the loop, today a 24-year-old man entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut this morning and began shooting, killing 27 people (that we know of) and at least 18 of them were children. The shooter's mother apparently worked as a teacher at the school and was supposedly one of the victims.

This is only one is a rising number of school shootings happening in America, including the Sikh Temple shooting in Wisconsin, the Aurora, Colorado shooting in the movie theater, the Oakland, California shooting in April, the March shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, and the Chardon Ohio and New Hampshire shootings in February.
That's all just in 2012.

This is becoming a serious issue, and I don't think anyone has any way to solve the problem. Many high schools have metal detectors, but not all of them. Are we going to install metal detectors and have airport security-like checks in every public building we enter? Cavity searches before going to the movies? See-through backpacks and purses when we go to school? Daily locker checks? Will the new fall line feature bullet-proof fashions next year?

This is getting ridiculous, and I think I have what could be a successful, albeit expensive, solution to this problem in the long-run of things.

Make it a requirement for every child in the seventh and 10th grades to go through a rigorous psychological interview with a crew of hired psychologists and psychiatrists. Should the child be found to have a normal psychological constitution, they are free to return to their classes and not have to return to counseling until 10th grade, when this psychological interview will resume again to make sure no mental issues or problems has risen in the last 3-4 developmental years (unless otherwise specified by their parents to receive personal counsel).
Should the child be found to have questionable mental health in either year, they are scheduled to have individual and group counseling 3-5 times per week, in place of a class.

I think these sessions and early checks for mental health issues in young adults will help catch issues that could develop into serious problems that result in extreme acts of violence, such as shootings like what happened on Friday, December 14th, 2012.
It is my hope that, with a program like this, we will have less parents and families burying their loved ones just for going to school, or out to the movies or to Temple or where ever else is no longer safe for daily public use.

A Poem

Disappointment

disappointment isn't a stab to the heart
it's a slow, eroding poison around the eyes
seeping deeper under the skin, causing sobs
and tears until it eventually easts those away, too
until there's nothing left, not even bitterness
just a lowness you can't quite lift yourself
high enough out of to feel "good."





Amy Liz