RECENT STORIES

Flag ceremony at Columbine Hills Elementary ( Juley Allee )
Developmental educators at ACC for fall conference ( John Scarffe )
Flu shots available at free Health Expo Oct. 16 ( Kate Dragoo, Foothills Park & Recreation District )
Two first-class stamps required for Jeffco ballots ( Julie Story )
Jeffco Voters can track their ballot online ( Julie Story )

share a story | more postings »

YourHub.com \\ Littleton \\ Stories \\ Sound Off \\ Write a Column

Sympathies for school shooting survivors

e-mail to a friend | print this | link to this

Contributed by: Kelsey Page on 9/28/2006

The recent events at Platte Canyon High School have in the least shocked our community. The sensitivity around any sort of school safety threat never fails to get classroom discussions going.

My heart goes out to those who've witnessed these sorts of events, and I can say from first-hand experience that witnessing someone dying or finding someone already dead is a horrific thing to behold that no one should ever have to go through.
It's so surreal how life can simultaneously continue on as normal yet be changed so drastically. You still do homework, go out with friends, complain about the price of movie tickets, but there is an alternate life lurking underneath your old one, everything is quieter and you don't seem to care as much.

I remember being angry at how everyone and everything was moving onwards and forgetting while I had to go home to those sounds and sights from that night my sister and I found my lifeless mother. I'm assuming this feeling is in the least similar to what students from Platte Canyon and Columbine must experience on a frequent basis.

Feeling safe in your surroundings is something that I feel is vital for anyone to be able to work, learn, or function. How many hours have I spent within the walls of high school, how the yearbook and newspaper room has grown into a second bedroom of sorts.

I cannot even come close to imagining what it would feel like not to be comfortable in those places, not to relax and just get our deadlines in, not to forget the outside world and focus on how to get line count and to the printer on time.

Incidents like these really make me more aware of how lucky I am that I can walk into my school every morning and feel nothing but grogginess or anxiety about an exam. I've never heard from anyone I know or any of my friends that they come to school worried about what's going to happen, how the day will play out, but did anyone from a school shooting feel that way beforehand?

I wonder if there's ever a prevalent air of discomfort in at least a dozen people on a day such as this.

I can't help but wonder if another school shooting is going to happen in the near future, and if so, at my own school?

I have friends who go to Columbine, teachers who came and went to teach at Columbine, we are so very similar, and yet the only thing it seems like my high school has gained from this tragedy is a new set of rules for after hours' entrance and some new techniques for inside/outside threats.

If security is truly an issue we're serious about fixing and improving ...how many desks, books, teachers, and educational tools are we willing to sacrifice, and if so, will that be enough?

Any way you look at it, someone is going to argue that it won't be enough to ensure safety, but can you ever completely ensure anything, and if you can come close, what's that worth?

[Report this as objectionable content.]

SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story

Current Rating

Based on 7 user ratings.

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

Thank you! Your comment has been updated.

Showing 1-2 of 2 comments

Submitted By: Karen Groves

posted on 1/29/2007 @ 3:47:16 PM

Rated Story

Good story on difficult subject Kelsey

[Report as objectionable]

Submitted By: Travis Henry

posted on 9/28/2006 @ 11:12:50 PM

Rated Story

Thanks for sharing Kelsey.

[Report as objectionable]

Showing 1-2 of 2 comments

CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Kelsey Page

Boulder , CO

Kelsey Page has posted 56 stories and 11 comments since joining on 9/21/2005. Kelsey Page 's average story rating is 4.92.

view profile » view other postings from Kelsey Page »

SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY

digg	Google
del.icio.us	Yahoo!
reddit	newsvine

What is this?

STORY RSS FEEDS

All stories

All stories in Littleton

All stories by Kelsey Page

WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?

Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

Loading Ad