On Wednesday, Feb. 14, a former student at a high school in Parkland, Florida, opened fired on students and teachers which left 17 people dead and 18 people injured.
The New York Times reports 12 people were killed inside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Three of the remaining victims died outside, and the other two died in the hospital.
Nikolas Cruz, 19, was identified as the gunman. He used a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle to end the lives of unsuspecting people who just wanted to learn and to teach. This is a poem about how I imagine the scenario went, the trauma these people must endure for the rest of their lives, and the need for something to be done about the very real gun problem we have in America. The material below contains descriptions that may be sensitive for some readers. Read with discretion.
Photo Source: Associated Press
The New Normal is Broken
The kids wake up groggy and annoyed that they have to go school.
They brush their teeth, put on their clothes, and eat their breakfast cereals.
Parents send their children off to the buses in the morning just like they do every weekday.
They go to class, take notes, eat lunch and hug their best friends.
The school day is coming to an end.
It is 2:40 p.m and these teenagers are staring at the clock eager to go home and relax.
But in an instant, everything changes.
The sound of bullets pierce the air.
A sound that no child should have to hear, especially on school grounds.
Panic ensues.
The faculty tells the students to hide under desks, inside of closets and to stay back from the door.
For two hours these children are traumatized with gunshot noises, the shooter banging at every door and the sounds of their classmates screaming and crying.
These students are sending messages to their loved ones questioning if it will be the last text they ever send.
Finally, there is silence.
As officers dressed in black enter the building slowly releasing students by classroom, these children lose the sense of innocence they had when they walked in the doors of school this morning.
The hallway has become a morgue, dead bodies strewn across the linoleum. Blood pooling at the students’ feet as they walk forward with their hands on each other’s’ shoulders.
When the Florida sunlight hits their skin, the kids know they are free.
They run into the arms of their family members and hold them tighter than they ever have.
In an instant, these children were forced to grow up way too quickly,
Just like in Columbine.
Just like in Sandy Hook.
Just like the 239 school shootings in the U.S since 2013.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School becomes another statistic.
Children dying while trying to get an education is becoming the new normal.
14-year-olds having to go to their best friend’s funeral is becoming the new normal. Parents fearing sending their kids to school is becoming a new normal.
BUT NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS NORMAL.
We know fear all too well and it needs to change.
We need stricter gun laws.
Guns do kill people, don’t tell me that they don’t.
Your right to own a gun shouldn’t be more important than the life of your children.
We need to take action.
Because I’m so sick of hearing about kids dying and I know I’m not the only one.