If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Central Connecticut State University (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Less than a year ago our state was completely shocked and dismayed by the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school. I wrote about it here and here. I’m not going to write about it again. It was devastating and it hasn’t left our thoughts in the last almost 11 months since it happened.
And then today it felt like it was happening all over again, only this time I actually knew people involved. I didn’t know any families at Sandy Hook, but it hit close to home because it was in my cousin’s home town. A town I have spent many Christmases in my life. It was my cousin’s elementary school. My aunt and uncle still live there. Seeing the images of the center flag staff on TV for days as what happened was shared was devastating. Having a child around the age of those who were killed made me feel vulnerable. How easily that could have been one of my children. Just a few towns over, an hour up the road. It definitely could have happened at my child’s school.
Honestly, it still could happen at my child’s school. That’s the scary thing, in all of this time nothing has changed. They tell us we’re doing what’s recommended and then some, but it definitely doesn’t seem like enough. I can get buzzed into my child’s school, bypass the office, and be in a classroom in no time.
But our elementary school children are not the only ones who are vulnerable. That has been becoming more and more clear as time goes on. Shootings and terror at airports, movie theaters, schools, marathons, and college campuses. It seems no where people frequent is safe anymore.
We had a near miss at Central Connecticut State University yesterday and one that I am so relieved ended with no fatalities and no injuries. But it wasn’t without its impact.
I have several friends with children who attend Central Connecticut State University. One such person just so happens to live upstairs from us. She sat in my living room watching the news unfold while texting her daughter on lock down in the very building they were saying they had the suspect contained in.
While this ended up nothing like Sandy Hook and it appears this person was just wearing a Halloween costume no one knew that in the moment. It was terrifying sitting here watching the news not really getting any real answers to things.
My friends daughter was greeted at her door by police and SWAT teams with guns drawn telling them to leave. It was a terrifying few hours and when our neighbor’s daughter stopped texting for a good half hour our friend was doing all she could to keep her cool about it.
I am so relieved that this situation ended the way it did. I’m sorry that an entire college campus had to be put on halt for a day with thousands of residents in a panic. That a young man who seemed to mean no harm caused all of this. All of this so easily could have gone in a much different direction.
We were lucky this time. But it’s a scary world we’re living in where we do end up questioning someone dressed in a Halloween costume. Why someone is still wearing their Halloween costume 4 days after Halloween though I do not know. At least everyone is safe.
What we need to change to make things safer isn’t so clear though. It’s clear that we do an awful lot of talk. Every shooting incident has one thing in common (aside from the gun that is) mental illness. I keep wondering when will we take a good long hard look at mental health care. It might not prevent everything and obviously what happened at CCSU yesterday wouldn’t have been prevented with a better mental health care system, but how many more of these incidences have to happen before we seriously revamp our current mental health care system?
Do you feel safe, or are you always feeling like you have to keep your guard up at all times?
