By VICTORIA LASKER and ALLIE WILLEY
Special to the Herald Times
MEEKER | What would happen if our little town of Meeker had a school shooter? What would we do? Of course our school does drills to prepare the students for every possible scenario, but do they really expect anything to happen? When asking the students of Meeker High School what they thought of school shooters this is how they responded.
“I think that school shooters are sad, lost people who think the only way to solve their problems is to take people’s lives. God loves all people. All lives should be valued,” responded Josh Dinwiddie.
“For a person to shoot up a school either has some mental issues that they can’t keep under control, or is a very selfish person. If you’re going through a hard time it’s up to you and only you to change the situation. You create your own happiness,” said Grace Gibson.
We live in a small town where people depend on each other. The thought of a school shooting actually happening hasn’t crossed the mind of most of the students. When asked most had not carefully considered “what if”?
“A school shooting is a traumatic event one can have nightmares about. Parents send their kids off to school everyday without the thought of their child not coming back home. But when such a dire situation happens people question themselves and ask ‘what if?’ What if I did something different? What if I lived somewhere else? The list goes on,” responded Mikayla Cardile.
“What is going so wrong in your life to shoot people?” asked Taylor Dodds.
“It’s sad to imagine that our little town that is thought to be happy and safe could be destroyed by the decision of just one student, and it is incredibly heartbreaking to think that not only the students, but also parents are worried now to send their children to something as mandatory as their education,” stated a 14-year-old freshman who asked that their identity remain anonymous.
Our school can’t begin to comprehend the chance of something so tragic happening. More though, the students are curious to what would someone be thinking. Why would they do this? They’re terrified of the fact that our security could one day be gone. We are a community. We count on each other. We grew up together. We are a family. The fact that it could be destroyed terrifies people, because no matter how much we know each other, it could still happen.
Victoria Lasker and Allie Willey
are Herald Times student interns.
