Vicky Gonzalez worked as a third grade teacher at Rancho Tehama Elementary school, a school that is part of the long list of U.S. school shootings.. On November 13-14, 2017 Kevin Janson Neil went on a multiple shooting spree; in the Rancho Tehama Reserve in California, killing 5 people and injuring 18. One of the crime scenes was Rancho Tehama Elementary school, where Vicky was teaching. On November 14, 2017 the school’s security reported hearing gunfire near the school and ordered the school to go on immediate lockdown. Minutes later, Neil drove his stolen pickup truck through the gates of the school then opened fire at the windows and walls of the school. All while this is going on, Vicky or Mrs. G as her students would call her was locking her classroom windows and door when she heard a light pounding on her door and a loud whisper: “PLEASE someone let us in!!” Mrs. G instructed everyone to stay away from the door while she opened it
When was the last time you heard of a school shooting? Probably not very long ago. School shootings in the US have been happening so often they are now an epidemic. We are sending our kids, siblings, cousins etc. to a place where their safety isn’t guaranteed. We are sending them to a place they could possibly get shot, maybe even killed. It’s a terrible day to have isn’t it? Now picture this: as horrifying as it may be, imagine yourself getting a phone call saying your kids school has just been shot up. You rush to campus, police surrounding the area, kids are running out searching for their families and your kid doesn’t come out, they are nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, your child doesn’t make it they were killed by a gunshot wound along with your child for other students were killed. Now you’re depressed, you’re heartbroken, the feeling of emptiness won’t leave your body so you turn on the TV to watch the news to see what they’re going to do so this won’t happen again. You skim through every local news channel and not one of them is covering the shooting of your child’s school or speaking on the losses. Then you’re loaded with rage wondering “What the f*ck Is more important then a school shooting or my child’s death?” But it’s just another normal news day. So the next day you go to the campus seeing all of these posters, candles, rituals for the school but still no media coverage. Your child, your own flesh and blood is gone and the world couldn’t care less. So then you start educating yourself on what could be done to prevent this from happening, it comes around the answer is gun control, then you take yourself to city Council demanding change.
Fast forward: now it’s a discussion, “Do we need gun control?“ And you hear so many arguments saying “No we are fine where we are plus it violates our second amendment we don’t need change“ but this is the 25th school shooting this year and it’s only March so why are we putting guns over the lives of our kids? Why isn’t this being covered everywhere? How many more victims until we realize we need change? I can’t answer those for you, nobody can. In today’s society we value our weapons more than the lives of our children.
Americans seem numbed by the apparent frequency of school shootings. Gun safety and school safety advocates say the shock factor has disappeared amid years of school shootings, making them feel like common, everyday events.
I believe we should care ANYTIME a gun goes off in a school. No matter what the situation, no matter what school, age group, race etc. if students aren’t safe coming into school that should be just as alarming. I know the media lacks coverage of every school shooting that actually takes place because I myself didn’t know there’s been 22 incidents where a gun was brought on campus just this year. There were only 18 incidents when I first started this assignment.
School shootings are happening so frequently it’s not obvious the reason not every shooting is getting broadcasted is because it happens so often people are used to it or there are just too many going on to keep up with either way a change NEEDS to come to gun policies.
People believe that having gun reform and changing gun policies won’t change a thing or that guns aren’t the problem. Whatever the reason may be, there is no reason we should be okay with a gun going off on campus 22 times in just the 3rd month of the year.
“It almost is like some kind of bar has been set and if school shootings don’t reach that bar, then maybe they’re not newsworthy, which is in itself wrong.”
It seems as if a school shooting body count doesn’t have a certain number of fatalities, injuries, or victims they aren’t newsworthy because “it’s been worse before” it shouldn’t have gotten this bad to begin with.
School shootings are so common around the U.S. the cries of help from children are being ignored because people would rather hear the sound of their own gun going off.
On this sunny Sunday morning I’m sitting across from Vicky Gonzalez in my one story Coachella home in my modernly decorated kitchen. We are sitting at my stone made table with a vase of blossoms in between us. Vicky has agreed to sit with me and answer any questions I may have about that fatal day. During the interview I find myself getting overwhelmed with emotion as she speaks on the events of that day. “ I felt as if my heart was pounding so fast, so loud, so hard against my chest the students could hear it and it was only making them more afraid. What’s more frightening then an adult that doesn’t know what to do in this situation?” “The fear in their eyes, their cries for help, some even preying for dear life that they make it out this alive it is something I could never forget. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life”
In her experience with teaching, Vicky described the level of shock to find a shooter on school grounds: “ Well obviously, when someone comes into the school you work at unloading a gun it’s not just another typical school day. “
The most difficult aspect of her work (or experience), then just may have been
preserving the safety of her students and always remaining calm even when she wanted to freak out, cry, and scream too just keeping her composure.
If she had the chance to change something about the situation, Vicky says the only thing she’d do is open the door sooner. Other than that she had no control of the situation that day.
A significant moment in her teaching, Vicky said it’s obvious the school shooting it doesn’t get bigger than that, at least she hopes it doesn’t,
Vicky explained to me how a common misconception with school shooting is there are ways students can prevent being stuck in these situations but there isn’t. She says we need gun reform not teaching students how to not get shot, not clear backpacks, not treating school like a prison.
The significant trends in school shootings is that they happen so often and there’s still no change.
No one has influenced her and has been considered her role model other than her father.
If she had to summarize the most important thing she’s learned about the shooting is to expect the unexpected and prepare for anything.
The most important thing Vicky wants others to know this is never the victims fault. The fault always lies in the shooter, no matter how mentally illy, what skin color, race or ethnicity and the blood is on the hands of the shooter and the ones who’d rather keep their guns than keep kids safe.
When I decided to write about Vicky it was mainly because I thought maybe if I talk about someone who I know who has witnessed something like this maybe others can realize how close to home it hits. However, when I finally spoke to Vicky and she told me her story my whole outlook span to people aren’t understanding the magnitude of the problem when it comes to school shootings. I’ve learned that even if we hope, pray and don’t expect something like this to happen to you, it still very much can happen anytime any day. Which is absolutely horrifying. I’ve read articles of upset parents crying that even though they’ve lost their sons or their daughters to something as vicious as gun violence, it’s like no one cares because they’d kids were only very few bodies and by that I mean the death toll wasn’t as high as other school shootings so it isn’t worth the media coverage that the others receive. To hear a parent in pain tell a newsletter how no one cares or knows how their kid died because it wasn’t enough for the media is just disgusting, it makes you think “what are we putting as a priority over this little girl or boy’s life? What is so damn important that I haven’t heard about this till I searched it up?” We as everyday people send our kids to school for their own good, so they can develop an education and live long successful lives but when that life is cut short because someone decides to bring a gun to school it is stripping young children of their right to life but still nothing gets done. It’s almost as if people would rather have another young life stripped away then go through more evaluations to hold guns in their home.
The tattoo’s only and
main color is black and I believe it is only in black to let it be known that
it is to be taken seriously. Black is the color of mourning and, I believe The
mother that tattooed the heart beat in black because she was mourning her now
gone infant but she wanted to still keep him close to her. The mother was
trying to show the pain and love she was feeling at the moment, the horrible
pain of losing a child but loving them so much you could never let them go. 